rs15.00 Vol ii no 232 22 pages

Scandal-hit Germanpresident resigns‘after losing trust’

PAGE 04

Cameron backs ‘friend’ Sarkozy in French election

Karachi edition

Kaneria named in spot-fixing case

pakistantoday.com.pk saturday, 18 february, 2012 rabi-ul-awal 25, 1433

SPORTS | PAGE 18 PAGE 17

ISLAMABADMIAn ABrAr

PAKISTAN, Afghanistanand Iran on Friday re-solved to fight out the men-ace of terrorism that hasplagued the people of the

three countries, with Iranian PresidentMahmoud Ahmadinejad calling foreigninterference the reason for all problemsin the region, saying the “seeds” of re-gional problems had been sowed from“outside” to keep the region backward.

“All the problems we are facingtoday in the region are coming from theoutside. In order to promote their goalsand ambitions … they don’t want toallow our nations to develop,” the Iran-ian president told reporters at a jointpress conference with President Asif AliZardari and Afghan President HamidKarzai after the conclusion of the thirdtrilateral summit.

“There are countries that are deter-mined to dominate our region. Andthey have targeted our region for theirdomination and hegemony,” he said.“We should deny others the opportu-nity to interfere in our affairs.”

Ahmadinejad stressed that theproblems of the region must be re-solved regionally and the trilateralmeeting was a step to achieve that goal.

A source said that during the meet-ing with his Iranian counterpart, Pres-ident Asif Ali Zardari had assuredAhmadinejad of Pakistan’s supportagainst any foreign aggression, besidescommitting that Islamabad would notallow its bases to be used by the USforces if Iran was attacked.

A joint declaration issued after thesummit said the three states would not

allow any threat emanating from theirrespective territories against eachother. “All parties agreed to commencetrilateral consultations on an agree-ment in this regard”.NO PRESSURE: About the Iran-Pak-istan pipeline, President Zardari saidno pressure from the US was accept-able and the project would be com-pleted against all odds. Following arefusal by India to join the project, Pak-

istan said it would try to bring in Chinaor Bangladesh to be part of the project.

It was learnt that Iran offered Pak-istan to double the gas supply throughthe pipeline from 750 million cubic feetto 1.5 billion cubic feet daily by layingthe pipeline with a double capacity, be-sides offering low cost gas.

g Pakistan, iran, Afghanistan agree to fight terror togetherg Ahmadinejad hits out at foreign interference in region

g Zardari says Pakistan will not allow use of its soil against Tehran

26 Shias killed inParachinar suicide bombing

PESHAWARSTAFF rePorT/AgencIeS

At least 26 people were killed and more than40 left injured when a suicide bomber blewhimself up in Kurma Bazar of Parachinar,headquarters of Kurram Agency, on Friday. Astrict curfew was imposed across the townafter resident Shias resorted to protestfollowing the incident. A Taliban faction led byFazal Saeed claimed responsibility for theattack. “We have targeted the Shia communityof Parachinar because they were involved inactivities against us,” he told Reuters overtelephone from an undisclosed location. “Wealso warn the political administration ofParachinar to stop siding with the Shiacommunity in all our disputes.” “We sent thesuicide bomber following attacks on SunniMuslims by Shia tribes in the area,” Saeedsaid. “We caught a man yesterday who wasplanting a bomb at a petrol station owned bya Sunni. We did it in response,” he added.Saeed was part of the Tehreek-e-TalibanPakistan (TTP) but broke away last year afterdisputes with the umbrella militant group’sleadership. He is said to have close ties withthe Haqqani Network. Per details, thesuicide bomber blew himself up amidst alarge crowd of people that was busyshopping in the bazaar following weeklyFriday prayers. The marketplace is close toboth a Shia imambargah and a mosque andit was, therefore, yet to be independentlyascertained whether Shias or Sunnis werethe target of the attack. More than 40injured were admitted to agencyheadquarters hospital in Parachinar, whilethose critically injured were moved tohospitals in Peshawar. There were alsoreports that three of the deceased had beenkilled by police firing at protesters from Shiacommunity following the bombing.

...but Pakistancan’t deliverTaliban forpeace talks

ISLAMABADSTAFF rePorT

The two-day trilateral summit appears tobe a failure for Afghan President HamidKarzai whose wishful request for Pakistan’sassistance in providing access to theTaliban leadership for talks has beenshrugged off. “Deliver Mullah Omar? Ifthis is the expectation, then there is noreality ... They are not only unrealistic, butpreposterous,” Foreign Minister HinaRabbani Khar told a group of journalistsfollowing the trilateral summit at thePresident’s House. Afghanistan’sadministration has been seeking Pakistan’scooperation in dialogue with the Taliban,as Kabul feels that it was sidelined byWashington during recent peace talks heldwith the militants. Khar also admitted thattalks during the summit were tough. “Thetalks were hard. But sometimes you need tohave hard talks ... We are willing to look atanything. But if you have unrealistic,almost ridiculous expectations, then youdon’t have a sort of common ground tobegin with,” she said. The foreign ministersaid her recent visit to Kabul had helpedmend fences with Afghan officials. She saidKabul should tell clearly what kind ofassistance it was expecting from Pakistanin peace process. Interior Minister RehmanMalik also said that Kabul had beeninformed that Islamabad was ready toprovide assistance in talks. “Talks arealready underway with Taliban in Qatar.Let them (Afghanistan) inform us what

ISLAMABAD: Afghan President Hamid Karzai, President Asif Zardari and Iranian

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad join hands after signing a joint communiqué

of the third Trilateral Summit on Friday. online

ConTinued on page 04

ConTinued on page 04Karzai urges opening of naTo supplies | page 22

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02Saturday, 18 February 2012

News

Today’s

lookQuick

LAHORe

Story on Page 07

NewS

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CORTOON

Page 13

Forget religion, it’s the mother who gets the girl Un chief makes new call for n-test ban implementation

PM invites C’wealth observersto monitor general electionsISLAMABAD: Secretary General Commonwealth, KamleshSharma called on Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani here onFriday at PM’s House and expressed his deep sense of gratitude onfor supporting his candidature for re-election as Secretary Generalof the Commonwealth at Perth. The Prime Minister said that theCommonwealth Forum offered valuable support to member statesfor nurturing and strengthening of democracy. The Prime Ministersaid that the National Assembly had recently passed the 20th Con-stitutional Amendment Bill which would ensure free, fair andtransparent elections within the country as nobody would raise fin-ger about the credibility of he electoral process in the country. ThePrime Minister asked the Secretary General to send Common-wealth Observers to monitor the forthcoming elections in thecountry. Gillani said that the empowerment of the people at thegross roots level was important for beneficial trickle down effectsin the country. Gillani agreed with Secretary General that the focusof Pakistan’s endeavours should be women, youth and the lessprivileged segments of society who constitute a major chunk ofpopulation of developing countries. nnI

Two US girls arrested briefly

in AbbottabadABBOTTABAD: Police on Friday claimed to have arrestedtwo American girls who were walking in the limits of Canton-ment Police without necessary documents, but released themlater after investigation. Police sources said the two Ameri-can girls were arrested after they failed to prove their identityand were taken to a police station for questioning. During theenquiry, the girls told the police that they came here to partic-ipate in a game, which according to police information, wasnot organised in the area. The cops asked them to show theiridentification but they refused to do so. Police then asked forany reference which could prove their identification. Theytold that they were staying at a church. Police contacted thechurch administration, which confirmed that the girls hadvisited Abbottabad to coach a women’s basketball team. Thegirls were then released. InP

Kayani avoids answering questions

on restoration of NATO suppliesISLAMABAD: Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General AshfaqParvez Kayani on Friday avoided answering several queries byreporters, including the reopening of NATO supply routes.Following the trilateral summit here at the presidency, Gen-eral Kayani was asked about the implications of reopeningNATO supply routes to which he replied that the questionshould be put to the defence minister.He also refused to comment when asked about the fate of thememo case. In response to a question that whether the armyofficers involved in the NLC case would face court-martial,Kayani said, “I won’t reply.” STAFF rePorT

US supports trilateral talks but

concerned over DPC ralliesWASHINGTON: The United States on Friday said it sup-ported trilateral talks between Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistanbut had concerns over the recent public appearance of HafizSaeed at a Difa-e-Pakistan rally in Karachi. During a dailypress briefing, US State Department spokesman Victoria Nu-land said the United States supported the ongoing trilateralsummit in Islamabad despite having reservations over Iran’snuclear programme. nnI

LAHORESTAFF rePorT

THe newly-appointed Punjab in-spector general of police (IGP),Haji Mohammad HabiburRehman, assumed charge of hisoffice on Friday after former

IGP Javed Iqbal was shown the door by thePakistan Muslim League-Nawaz govern-ment for purportedly not acting in accor-dance with its wishes.

Iqbal has now been appointed the directorgeneral of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

Prior to his appointment as the inspectorgeneral of Punjab Police, Rehman was servingin the Punjab Constabulary as the additionalIG. His name had been discussed before theappointment of Iqbal as the Punjab IGP, as hewas one of the key players who had chances tobe appointed to the post.

Iqbal himself was once a blue-eyed of-ficial of the Punjab chief minister, but a fewmonths after his appointment, he had re-fused to act in accordance with the policiesof the PML-N.

Well-placed sources said Iqbal was askedto sign a summary for putting Punjab Policeunder the Home Ministry, but he had refusedto act accordingly and that had fuelled differ-ences between him and the PML-N.

The sources said the appointment ofRehman could be part of PML-N’s plan to getpolice’s help in the coming general election.

Rehman was born in Sialkot in 1953. Hegot his primary education from Sialkot andFaisalabad and after getting his Mastersdegree in economics, he decided to join thePunjab Police in 1977 as an ASP. He servedas SDPO in Rahim Yar Khan, Toba TekSingh and Pakpattan.

After being promoted as an SP in 1983,

Rehman served in Toba Tek Singh, Sahi-wal, Rahim Yar Khan and Faisalabad Traf-fic Highway.

In 1993, he was promoted as an SSP andserved in Lahore and Rawalpindi.

Rehman was appointed the Lahore CCPOin 2009 at the time the president imposedgovernor’s rule in Punjab. His posting hadbrought him into bad books of the PML-Nleadership, however, matters settled be-tween the two sides and Rehman was latergiven a role in Punjab after the PML-N lead-ership appointed him the additional IG ofPunjab Constabulary.

Meanwhile, the federal government hasgiven a better role to Javed Iqbal and ap-pointed him the FIA director general, whileposting former FIA DG Tehseen Shah as theNational Police Bureau (NPB) DG.

Shah would take over the charge fromTahir Arif, who retired on February 12.

New Punjab IGP takes charge of office

ISLAMABAD: A woman holds a picture of her relative during a demonstration for

the recovery of missing persons in front of the Parliament House on Friday. online

g Outgoing IGP changed following purported differences with PML-N leadership

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03Saturday, 18 February 2012

NewsCOMMeNTMending fences:

Articles on Page 12-13

Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran meet.

The Hippocratic oathThe young doctors have forgotten…

Arif nizami says:

Aziz-ud-Din Ahmad says:

FOReIGN NewS

Story on Page 16

ARTS & eNTeRTAINMeNT

Story on Page 15

SPORTS

Story on Page 18

Famine is over, but Somalia still struggles Katy, gaga, Selena and Taylor Top Kid’s choice noms

On the trilateral summit: Each country has difficult choices to make.

Imran cries foul: A challenge to the 20th Amendment.

raoof Hasan says:The villainous cover-ups: The government’s governance woes.

Quetta remains shut to

protest JUI-F leader’s

abduction, snatching of

ANP leaders’ vehicleQUETTA

SHAHZADA ZULFIqAr

A complete shutter-down strike was ob-served in Quetta on Friday against the kid-napping of a JUI-F leader and the snatchingof ANP provincial president’s vehicle fromthe provincial capital.The strike call was separately given by theJUI-F and ANP to protest the kidnapping ofJUI-F Quetta Secretary General Abdul SadiqNurzai and the snatching of vehicle of ANPProvincial President Aurangzaib Kasi.Sadiq Nurzai was kidnapped by a group ofarmed men from Sariab Road while he wason his way home on Thursday, while Kasiwas deprived of his vehicle by an armedgroup of criminals. All business centres andcommercial establishments in Quetta re-mained closed for the day. Markets andshops located on Jinnah Road, Abdul SattarRoad, Kansi Road, Almdar Road, ToghiRoad, Brewery Road, Mission Road,Mechangi Road, Prince Road, LiaquatBazaar, Fatima Jinnah Road, Masjid Road,Joint Road and adjacent areas of the city re-mained shut. The roads and streets wore adeserted look with very thin traffic plyingthe roads. Routine life in the provincial capi-tal also remained paralysed on Friday.Workers of both the JUI-F and ANP organ-ised protest rallies from Government ScienceCollege. The activists marched through vari-ous parts of the city and ended the ralliesoutside the Quetta Press Club. They carriedplacards and banners inscribed with slogansagainst the government. The JUI-F rally wasled by Hafiz Hamdullah, Quetta chief of theJUI-F, while the protest demonstration bythe ANP was led by Aurangzaib Kasi.

LAHOREYASIr HABIB

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz(PML-N), which is going through astructural overhaul ahead of generalelections, has finally dropped the ideaof splitting the party into separatechapters for Central Punjab andSouth Punjab.

The issue of splitting Punjab intotwo parts at party level gained steadybuzz after the Pakistan People’s Party(PPP) divided its Punjab chapter intotwo parts for Central and South Pun-jab on November 5, 2011

The PPP appointed MakhdoomShahabuddin as president for thePPP-South Punjab, and Imtiaz Safdar

Warraich, the erstwhile president ofPPP-Punjab, as president for the PPPcentral Punjab.

Treading his rival’s trail, PML-NPresident Nawaz Sharif held a meet-ing on December 27, 2011 and dis-cussed the idea of dividing the party’sPunjab chapter into two parts.

This bifurcation of the parties wasaimed deepen the party’s presence inboth South and Central Punjab as de-mands for a Saraiki province grewlouder.

Sources close to the Sharifs toldPakistan Today that the PML-N wasnot panicking on the Saraiki issue. “Itis deemed that the division of Punjabat party level would not reap any ben-efit, therefore there is no need to re-

structure the party on such grounds,”a party official said.

PML-N Information SecretaryMushahidullah Khan said the partywould keep its Punjab chapter intactand has no intention to divide it intotwo parts.

Meanwhile, the PML-N has de-cided to appoint Punjab Chief Minis-ter Shahbaz Sharif as the party’sPunjab president during the currentmonth. earlier, senior party leaderKhawaja Saad Rafiq was gearing up tobecome the party’s president in Cen-tral Punjab after crossing HamzaShahbaz in the race for the importantslot. On the other hand, Sardar Zul-fiqar Khosa was likely to become thepresident of PML-N-South Punjab.

Nawaz had scheduled the partyelection at Punjab level for January 4,but postponed it later and also de-layed the decision to appoint theparty’s Punjab president.

Senior PML-N leader said thatspeculations were amuck about theparty’s next secretary general inPunjab. Sardar Zulfiqar Ali Khosawas out of the race after being ad-justed as a senator.

Some party leaders believed thatKhawaja Saad Rafiq was a betterchoice for the slot. Other names arebeing discussed, including TehminaDoltana, Saif Khosa (younger son ofSardar Zulfiqar Ali Khosa) andPML-N-Bahawalpur PresidentSamiullah Khan.

Pak-Afghan cooperation important for regionalpeace, Nawaz tells Karzai

Trilateral summit to

ensure peace, stability

in region: FirdousISLAMABAD

APP

Minister for Information and BroadcastingDr Firdous Ashiq Awan on Friday said thetrilateral summit of presidents of Pakistan,Afghanistan and Iran would ensure peace,stability and development in the region.Talking to reporters, she said that keepingin view the current situation, there was adire need to devise a strategy in consulta-tion with neighbouring countries to pro-mote development and stability in theregion and handle challenges in an effec-tive way. She said the signing of joint dec-laration by Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iranwas reflective of the fact that the presidentsof the three countries were determined totake steps in the interest of the region.The minister said Pakistan, Afghanistanand Iran had a common history, cultureand religion and had an important role toplay in the future of the region. She said the three countries were fightingagainst terrorism and were fully aware thatthey needed to work jointly to win againstthe menace. The minister said the summit would behelpful in resolving the challengespresently faced by these countries.“The deliberations of the summit show thatthe leadership of Pakistan has taken deci-sions in the interest of the country and theregion,” she added.The minister said fruits of the summitwould be reaped in the future by strength-ening of regional mechanisms for achievingdevelopment, progress and prosperity.

ISLAMABAD STAFF rePorT

PAKISTAN MuslimLeague-Nawaz (PML-N)President Nawaz Sharifon Friday emphasised theneed to enhance under-

standing and cooperation betweenPakistan and Afghanistan assertingthat it was essential for maintenanceof peace and stability in the region.

Nawaz said this during a dinnerthat he hosted in the honour of thevisiting president of Afghanistan,Hamid Karzai at Punjab House.

Nawaz praised President Karzaifor accepting the invitation to an in-timate dinner and characterised it as

reflective of the historic linkages andbrotherly relations between theirtwo centuries, as well as of their mu-tual regard and esteem for eachother.

The PML-N president informedPresident Karzai that as a neighbourand brotherly country, Pakistanwished Afghanistan and its peoplepeace and stability, especially as hewas convinced that there could be nopeace in Pakistan unless stabilitywas achieved in Afghanistan.

He lauded the efforts of Presi-dent Karzai in promoting reconcili-ation in his country, which he feltwas the only way to achieve peace.He also expressed shock and grief atthe assassination of former Presi-

dent Burhanuddin Rabbani, whowas heading the High Peace Counciland whose strenuous efforts had al-ready started bearing fruit. He re-quested that his deep condolencesmay be conveyed to the family mem-bers of the late president.

Thanking Nawaz for the dinner,Karzai spoke of his long associationwith the former prime minister, whohe referred to as a sincere friend andwell-wisher of Afghanistan.

He also recalled Nawaz’s past ef-forts to promote peace and stabilityin Afghanistan, which was deeplyappreciated in his country.

President Karzai extended a cor-dial invitation Nawaz to visit Kabulwhich was accepted.

Misbah wants batsmen to change Pakistan fortunes

PML-N decides against dividing party for Central and South Punjab

g PML-N president hosts dinner for the Afghan president g Tells him there can

be no peace in Pakistan unless stability is achieved in Afghanistan

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Yousaf raza gilani talks to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Afghan

President Hamid Karzai during a meeting at the Prime Minister’s House on Friday. nni

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04Saturday, 18 February, 2012

News

To a question on interna-tional pressure for not mate-rialising the Iran-Pakistangas pipeline project, Presi-dent Zardari said Islamabadwas lobbying the world andits viewpoint had beenlooked at and accepted.

“Our bilateral relation-ship cannot be considered orundermined by any interna-tional pressure of any kind,”he said, sending a clear mes-sage to the US administra-tion about his commitmenttowards the pipeline project.

He also rubbished theimpression that Pakistaniforces were involved directlyor indirectly with militantsin Afghanistan and said,“There might be some ele-ments in the country that area residue of the Soviet warand could be blamed for mil-itancy. There are billions ofdollars of drug trade goingon in Afghanistan and theymight be using the illicitmoney. We can’t deny that,”he said.

Zardari said time andagain he had called on theUS to pay attention to thismatter. He said terrorismwas a challenge shared bythe three countries who hadsuffered due to this menace.

“I personally suffered aloss,” the president saidwhile referring to the assas-sination of his wife BenazirBhutto, adding, “Still, noone would tell me who thefinancer of Baitullah Mah-sud was.” Zardari said noone could deny that therewere people from bothsides who were involved inmilitancy. “This is a worldproblem … they have leftthe baby with us.”

President Karzai saidthe dialogue had been fruit-ful and all three countrieswere working together. Hecalled the tripartite meet-ing “future-oriented” thathad helped focus on recog-nition of opportunities andformulation of an action-

able and implement-ablepolicy to act upon.

“Any impediments inthe way of regional cooper-ation would be removed.”

Ahmadinejad calledPresident Zardari andKarzai brothers, sayingthey were determined towork out a mechanism forregional cooperation.

“We are here tostrengthen and solidify co-operation among the threecountries. We are going tomove from words to deedsfor removing the prob-lems,” he added.

He said the three coun-tries had the resources toface the challenges as theyhad large lands, talentedhuman resource and richhumanitarian culture.

“InshaAllah, we aregoing to witness very goodprogress in our countries.”

Asked about his coun-try’s nuclear programme,President Ahmadinejad

called for going beyond theissue in building relationsbetween nations.

“Nuclear bombs shouldbe deleted from the worldas they are not a capabilityto be used. Our relationswith Pakistan and its peo-ple are not for nuclearbombs, rather, these arebased on building the fu-ture of our people,” hesaid, adding that Pakista-nis were a brave nation.

“We are shaking ourhands to achieve this. Wehave great hopes of victoryin future.”

He regretted that dueto tight schedule of thesummit, he could not in-teract with the people ofPakistan and assured thathe would do so in his nextbilateral visit.

earlier, President AsifAli Zardari, PresidentHamid Karzai and PresidentMahmoud Ahmadinejadinked the document of JointCommuniqué at the end ofthe two-day third trilateralsummit, aimed at enhancingregional cooperation.

ALL FOR ONe!

LAHORE: Former federalminister for human rights,law and parliamentary af-fairs senator (r) IqbalHaider on Thursday re-turned from his three-dayvisit to Mumabi.He had been invited byMumbai University’s De-partment of Civic & Politicsfor participation in an in-ternational conference on“Imperatives of NationalSecurity and Foreign Pol-icy: India, Pakistan andChina”, held on February13 and 14. PreSS reLeASe

ISLAMABAD STAFF rePorT

PAKISTAN Mus-lim League-Nawaz (PML-N)P r e s i d e n tNawaz Sharif on

Friday announced that hisparty would bring a resolu-tion in the National As-sembly for the recovery ofthe missing persons.

Nawaz visited a camp offamilies of missing personsat Parade Avenue to expresssolidarity with them. Afterconsoling the families,Nawaz severely criticised thegovernment for failing tohold those institutions ac-countable which were ab-ducting people in violation

of the country’s laws. Leader of Opposition in

the National AssemblyChaudhry Nisar Ali Khanand Senator Ishaq Dar werealso present on the occasion.

He said the PML-Nwould continue its “jihad”until the missing personswere recovered. “The PML-N will continue raising theissue till missing persons’ re-covery … we cannot toleratethis anymore … the demo-cratic government is notcontrolling such tactics bysome forces,” he said.

Nawaz said he had di-rected Nisar to move a reso-lution in the NationalAssembly in support of themissing persons’ case. “Weand the nation will watch

which parties dare opposethe resolution,” he said,adding that in Balochistan,the missing persons issuehad become a trouble.

“I want to assure mybrothers in Balochistan thatwe will raise our voice forthem as well. We do not dis-criminate between theprovinces,” the PML-N pres-ident said.

He said the PML-Ncould not see the plight ofthe families of around 1,000missing persons from acrossthe country, upon which De-fence of Human Rights(DHR) Chairwoman AminaMasood Janjua told Nawazthat the total number ofmissing persons across thecountry was over 10,000.

Nawaz promises NA resolutionfor missing persons’ recovery

BERLINAFP

Scandal-hit German Presi-dent Christian Wulff an-nounced on Friday he wasstepping down as the head ofstate, a day after prosecutorsasked parliament to lift hisimmunity from prosecution.

“I am... today steppingdown from the office of fed-eral president to free up theway quickly for a successor,”he said in a televised state-ment from his Bellevuepalace. Germany needs “apresident that enjoys the trustof not only a majority, but abroad majority of citizens,”said a sombre Wulff, with hiswife Bettina at his side.

“The developments ofthe last days and weeks haveshown that this trust andtherefore my effectivenesshave been damaged.

“For this reason, it is nolonger possible to carry outthe office of president bothdomestically and abroad theway it needs to be done,”added the head of state. “Ihave made mistakes, but Iwas always honest,” he said.Chancellor Angela Merkelwas expected to make astatement immediately. The52-year-old president hasbeen rocked by scandals andallegations since mid-De-cember largely over his con-nections to wealthybusinessmen, initially overan advantageous home loanfrom a friend’s wife.

Prosecutors in LowerSaxony state, where Wulffwas formerly premier, saidlate on Thursday they hadasked parliament to lift hisimmunity in order to launchan investigation into allegedacceptance of favours.

Afghan army gives

ultimatum to

soldiers having

‘ties to Pakistan’KANDAHAR: In an effortto rid their army of Talibaninfiltrators, Afghan officialshave begun ordering sol-diers with families in Pak-istan to either move theirrelatives to Afghanistan orleave the military. Afghandefence officials say the pol-icy was crafted in responseto a recent spate of incidentsin which soldiers who weresecretly working for the Tal-iban carried out attacksagainst NATO or Afghantroops. According to thearmy’s counterintelligencefindings, those men oftenhave ties to insurgenthavens in Pakistan. But theultimatum could forcepainful choices for thou-sands of Afghan troops, andit is likely to stoke ethnictensions just as the country’sleadership is seeking a nego-tiated end to the war. Purg-ing members of the militarywith families in Pakistanalso has the potential to ag-gravate long-troubled rela-tions between Afghanistanand its eastern neighbour.The policy has not yet re-ceived final approval fromthe Defence Ministry, andAfghan officials are stillweighing whether to apply itnationwide, even as imple-mentation begins in someareas. Mere consideration ofthe policy reflects the depthof anxiety in Afghanistan,both among Afghan officialsand Western powers, oversleeper agents within themilitary. InP

Scandal-hit Germanpresident resigns

UN assembly

adopts resolution

condemning Syria

UNITED NATIONSreUTerS

The 193-nation UN GeneralAssembly ratcheted up thepressure on Syrian Presi-dent Bashar al-Assad onThursday by overwhelm-ingly approving a resolu-tion that endorses an ArabLeague plan calling for himto step aside. “Today theUN General Assembly senta clear message to the peo-ple of Syria – the world iswith you,” US Ambassadorto the United NationsSusan Rice said in a state-ment. “An overwhelmingmajority of UN memberstates have backed the planput forward by the ArabLeague to end the sufferingof Syrians,” she said.“Bashar al-Assad has neverbeen more isolated.” Shar-ing the concerns of the in-ternational community,Pakistan’s Permanent Rep-resentative to UN Ambas-sador Abdullah HussainHaroon also voted for theArab-sponsored resolutionon Syria. The resolution,similar to one Russia andChina vetoed in the Secu-rity Council on February 4,received 137 votes in favor,12 against and 17 absten-tions, although three coun-tries said their votes failedto register on the electronicboard. Russia and Chinawere among those opposingthe resolution, which wasdrafted by Saudi Arabiaand submitted by egypt onbehalf of Arab states. Un-like in the Security Council,there are no vetoes in theGeneral Assembly, but itsdecisions lack the legalforce of council resolu-tions. The resolution saidthe assembly “fully sup-ports” the Arab Leagueplan aimed at haltingSyria’s 11-month crack-down on anti-Assaddemonstrators and urgesUN Secretary-General BanKi-moon to appoint a spe-cial envoy to Syria. It alsocondemns Damascus for“widespread and system-atic violations of humanrights” and calls for thewithdrawal of Syrian forcesfrom towns and cities. TheUnited Nations says morethan 5,400 civilians havebeen killed in the uprising.

Senator (r) Haider

returns from goodwill

visit to Mumbai

ConTinued from page 1

role they wanted for Pak-istan in the peace process,”he said. When asked if Pak-istan had been asked tobring the Taliban leadershipto table with the Karzai ad-ministration, Malik said thatit would be unjust to claimthat Islamabad enjoyed suchan influence to bring a cer-tain militant group to the di-alogue table. However, headded that since the Afghangovernment was the mainstakeholder in the peaceprocess, Pakistan was readyto help in its capacity.

“Pakistan wants peace.We don’t want that this re-gion should suffer further,”he said. When asked if Pak-istan would side by Iran incase of an attack by Israel,Malik said his country’s ob-jective was to ensure peacein the region, which was al-ready suffering due to ter-rorism and other conflicts.

“The international commu-nity should resolve all issuesthrough dialogue,” he said.

Asked if Islamabad’scommitment to complete theIran-Pakistan gas pipelinewould offend Washington,Malik said that regional co-operation should not betaken as an alliance against aspecific country. “If we talkto resolve our issues bilater-ally, this should not meanthat we are uniting againstthe US or any other nation,”he said, adding that the lackof a common strategy wascomplicating the resolutionof regional conflicts.

About border security is-sues between Iran,Afghanistan and Pakistan,Malik said that Pakistan hadcalled for installing bordercheck posts. He said that 40to 50 people cross the Pak-istan-Afghanistan bordereveryday without any entryin official records. “We don’twant to carry on with the

blame game. We have toldAfghanistan that establish-ing border check postswould resolve 80 percent is-sues. However, if no action istaken against the infiltratorsin future, we would take uni-lateral action.”

He said the three neigh-bouring countries were fac-ing a common challenge ofterrorism and they needed toevolve a common strategy tofight out the terrorists. Hesaid the militants were get-ting money from drug traf-ficking and threateningworld peace. He said a goodroadmap against militancycould help tackle the chal-lenge.

To a question, Malik de-nied that the Pakistani gov-ernment was holding talkswith the Tehreek-e-TalibanPakistan. “We have receivedsome messages from the Tal-iban, but talks would only beheld with those who join themainstream,” he added.

...but Pakistan can’t ConTinued from page 1

ISLAMABADSTAFF rePorT

Pakistan, Iran andAfghanistan on Fridayagreed to enhance mutualcooperation to realise theshared aspiration of theirpeoples for peace, security,stability and economic pros-perity with a pledge tocounter any threat emanat-ing from their respective ter-ritories against each other, ajoint statement issued afterthe trilateral summit said.

It said the three presi-dents stressed the need toimplement the earlier deci-sions taken at the trilateralsummits held in Tehran inMay 2009 and June 2011. Itwas agreed that cooperationfor eradicating extremism,terrorism and militancywould be strengthened toaddress the root causes ofthese menaces.

The three leaders under-scored that their countrieswere bound by historical, ge-ographical, cultural and reli-gious ties, and agreed to takepractical steps for promotingstability, peace and sharedprosperity, the statementsaid.

They decided to ensurerespect for sovereignty, in-dependence, unity and terri-torial integrity as enshrined

in the UN Charter, and pro-ceed on the basis of mutualinterest, mutual respectwithout any external inter-vention in their countries’internal affairs, it added.The statement said that allparties agreed to commencetrilateral consultations on anagreement in this regard andcontribute to the develop-ment and reconstruction inAfghanistan.

They decided to broadencooperation in the political,security, economic, cultural,social and educational fieldsand enhance people-to-peo-ple contacts, including ex-change visits ofparliamentarians, academicsand journalists.

The statement said thethree presidents agreed toincrease cooperation in com-bating the production andtrafficking of narcotics. Theyalso decided to expand coop-eration in socio-economicdevelopment, enhancethree-way trade by facilita-tion measures includingpreferential tariff and freetrade arrangements as wellas barter trade, besides ex-pressing a commitment toenlarge transit trade and en-courage private investmentin their countries.

The leaders also pledgedto increase collaboration in

infrastructure development,including road and rail links,transport, communicationsystems, in addition to jointventures in energy, miningand agriculture sectors.

They also decided to co-operate for the safe, volun-tary and early return ofAfghan refugees to theirhomeland with dignity andhonour, and emphasised theneed for enhancing their co-operation at the interna-tional level, especiallywithin the United Nationssystem.

They also mandatedtheir foreign ministers toprepare and coordinate aroad map for trilateral coop-eration which would be sub-mitted in the next summit.

They also mandated theinterior/security ministersto develop a framework oftrilateral cooperation in theareas of counter terrorism,counter-narcotics and bor-der management within sixmonths and further man-dated the commerce minis-ters to outline steps forenhancing three-way eco-nomic cooperation. Thethree countries’ officials atthe deputy foreign minister-level would meet regularly tomonitor the implementationof the decisions taken by thetrilateral summits.

RAWALPINDIAPP

Calling the Adiala jail de-tainees terrorists, a securityofficial on Friday said sym-pathisers had forgotten themiseries of those 28 inno-cent families, who had suf-fered the loss of their lovedones in Hamza Camp attackfor which the 11 detaineeshad been arrested.

He said the media shouldreach out to the families ofthose who had embracedmartyrdom at the hands of

the Adiala Jail detainees. He said the 11 suspects were

Dr Niaz Ahmed Saqib,Mazharul Haq, ShafiqueurRehman, Abdul Basit, Abdul Sa-boor, Abdul Majid, MuhammadAmir Khan Khan, MuhammadShafiq aka Maaz, Tehseenullah,Saeed Arab aka Tariq Gul, RozeKhan aka Farman. He said theywere hardcore terrorists, whowere involved in planning, facil-itating and executing suicide at-tacks on a bus near HamzaCamp, on November 24 2007and Kamra Airbase missile at-tack on January 15, 2008.

11 Adiala Jail detainees are hardcoreterrorists: security official

LAHore: US chargé d’ Affaires richard Hoagland and Lahore

consul general nina Maria Fite inaugurate the USA Pavilion at

the Dawn Agri-expo and conference 2012 on Friday. PR

Trilateral summit ends with apledge to counter mutual threats

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05Saturday, 18 February, 2012

News

ISLAMABADSHAIq HUSSAIn

To many it was a landmark summit be-tween the presidents of Pakistan, Iranand Afghanistan here in the capital onFriday with all three heads of state resolv-ing to fight the menace of terrorismjointly and settling their problems ontheir own without inviting external actorsfor assistance, but it’s the other wayround when it comes to ground realities.

Owing to various important factors,the realisation of all the announcementsand decisions made at the Islamabad tri-lateral summit of these three nationsseem to be a daunting task if not com-pletely impossible.

And to those, who dub it as a historicmeeting, it was not the first one of itskind, as two summits of Pakistan, Iranand Afghanistan had been held in Tehran

previously on much or less the same is-sues with no tangible results and thefourth one is scheduled to be held inKabul.

It was at the Islamabad trilateralsummit that President Asif Ali Zardarisaid on Friday that Pakistan, along withAfghanistan and Iran, was committed tojointly work to rid the region of the men-ace of terrorism.

President Zardari also said that onlyjoint efforts could help the region over-come terrorism that was being fuelled bybillions of dollars of drug trade. The threeleaders vowed that they would collabo-rate for regional peace and prosperity ob-serving there was no need of any externalassistance for the purpose.

As it was expected, President Mah-moud Ahmadinejad also targeted theUnited States once again, although indi-rectly, by saying that some foreign pow-ers were up to controlling this region anddifferent conspiracies are on for the pur-pose.

More importantly, President Zardari,while expressing his concern over the ris-

ing tensions between Washington andTehran over the latter’s nuclear pro-gramme, reportedly assured his Iraniancounterpart that Pakistan would notallow the use of its soil by the UnitedStates in case of its attack on Iran.

The Pakistani leader also reiteratedhis commitment to the Iran-Pakistan gaspipeline project which is supposed to becompleted by 2014 despite US pressureand strong opposition.

He said that in return Pakistan couldprovide Iran with wheat to help overcomeits food needs, a gesture welcomed by Ah-madinejad.

As for Afghanistan, its PresidentHamid Karzai’s request from his Pak-istani counterpart was to help Kabul withaccess to the Taliban for direct talks alongwith the ongoing peace negotiations be-tween US and Taliban representatives inQatar.

Pakistan, on its part extended assur-ance of all possible cooperation to Kabulfor bringing back much needed peace andstability to Afghanistan, where decades ofwar and strife killed and injured hun-

dreds of thousands of people. Nonetheless, the diplomatic circles

here see grave hindrances in the way offulfilment of all the announcements madeby the three leaders during the trilateralsummit and the decisions that they madeon Friday.

They believe that most importantthing is that Pakistan has been in the UScamp for decades, and the post-9/11 co-operation is only a matter of one decade.

Off late, there are clear signs of thawin Islamabad-Washington ties after sev-eral months of tensions in bilateral tiesthat erupted in the wake of last year’sNATO strikes on Pakistani border postswhich killed 24 soldiers.

Its not only Pakistan’s position in theUS camp that is the hurdle in the way oftrilateral cooperation between Tehran,Islamabad and Kabul on the Afghanistanissue, but another serious obstacle is thebilateral differences between Pakistaniand Iranian authorities on policies thatthey have been pursuing in the sharedneighbourhood.

Pakistan is blamed for trying to se-

cure and safeguard its interests inAfghanistan through the Taliban foryears, and the Iranians are allegedlybacking the elements within erstwhileNorthern Alliance in their fight againstthe militants led by Mullah Omar.

Many believe that this indirect fight-ing in Afghanistan between Iran and Pak-istan or to be more precise, the proxywar, is still going on and given that vitalfactor it is naïve to be optimistic aboutthe positive outcomes of the Islamabadtrilateral summit or another such meet-ing scheduled for Kabul.

And last but not the least, the muchtalked about Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline.The future of that mega project alsoseems to be bleak despite the dire energyneeds of Pakistan. The pipeline comesunder the UN-backed international sanc-tions and it would be very difficult for Is-lamabad to defy those sanctions.

Many energy experts and economistsbelieve that owing to international sanc-tions, it would be very difficult for Islam-abad to arrange for the finances requiredto complete the mega project.

Ground realities highlight cracks in ‘landmark’ trilateral summit

VIENNAAFP

UNITeD Nations Secre-tary General Ban Ki-moon made a new call onFriday for the last coun-tries that have not yet rat-

ified the Comprehensive Nuclear TestBan Treaty (CTBT) to let it enter intoforce.

“Any country opposed to signing orratifying it is simply failing to meet itsresponsibilities as a member of the in-ternational community,” he said.

“It is irresponsible to see this treatystill waiting to come into effect 15 yearsafter it was opened for signature.”

“I urge all governments that havenot yet signed or ratified this treaty toimmediately do so,” Ban added. “I espe-

cially call for action by the countrieswhose ratification is essential for thetreaty to enter into force.”

The treaty bans nuclear explosionsfor either military or civilian purposes,and has so far been signed by 182 coun-tries and ratified by 157 of them.

But it will not come into effect untilit is ratified by the 44 key countries pos-sessing nuclear technology. Thirty-sixhave done so but holdouts include theUnited States, China, egypt, Iran andIsrael. India, Pakistan and North Koreahave yet to sign the pact.

Since Ban made a similar appeal atUN headquarters in September, one keycountry, Indonesia, has ratified theagreement.

“The family of CTBT member stateshas grown to 182, 157 of which have rat-ified. The network has grown, station by

station,” the head of the Vienna-basedCTBT Organisation, Tibor Toth, said onFriday.

Ban added, “Now we have only eightcountries and I am ready to meet allthese leaders and if necessary travelwith Ambassador Tibor Toth to thoseeight countries who are still reluctant ormay have doubts about the ratificationof this treaty.” The CTBT is seen byarms control advocates as a key meas-ure for preventing the spread of nuclearweapons.

The unwillingness of the UnitedStates to ratify the treaty has been a keyobstacle, with many analysts saying thatUS ratification would encourage otherholdout countries to follow suit.

The CTBT also calls for a global sys-tem for monitoring nuclear explosions,which has been partially set up.

UN chief makes new call for

nuclear test ban implementationg Ban says it is irresponsible to see CTBT still waiting to come into effect 15 years after it was opened for signature

3 peace lashkar men,8 militants killedin Tirah operation

PESHAWARSTAFF rePorT

At least three volunteers of a peace lashkarand eight militants were killed in clashes inTirah Valley of Khyber Agency on Friday.Officials said security forces, with help ofthe peace lashkar, initiated a crackdownagainst militants in the area. But militantsoffered stiff resistance and shot dead threevolunteers and injured five personnel ofthe security forces. Later, the securityforces called in helicopter gunships andtargeted militant hideouts and compounds.The officials said at least eight militantswere killed and several of their dens hadbeen demolished.

Bangladesh bans‘Banglish’ to protectlocal language

DHAKAAFP

A Bangladesh court has outlawed the use ofenglish slang known as “Banglish” ontelevision and radio stations, a movewelcomed by experts on Friday who worryabout a foreign invasion of their language.The High Court issued the order onThursday “to uphold the sanctity of ourmother tongue” and stop the “rape” ofBengali and its 1,000-year past, a stateprosecutor said. The history of Bengali,which is spoken by at least 250 millionpeople on the subcontinent, is wrapped upwith the creation of Bangladesh as a countryin 1971. The deeply impoverished nation waspreviously part of Pakistan and itsindependence movement was fuelled partlyby the attempt by Pakistani administrators toimpose Urdu as the state language. The headof the Bangla Academy, a state-runinstitution that publishes books andconducts research on Bengali, said theverdict was “long overdue”. “These FMradios and televisions were creating a strangelanguage and almost destroyed the dynamicsof our beautiful mother tongue,”Shamsuzzaman Khan told AFP. “It is atimely order. It will save our language fromdestruction. We have already seen how theFilipino language lost its glory due to theimposition of American english,” he said.The court order comes just days before thecountry celebrates the 60-year anniversary ofthe Language Movement, a protest in whichhalf a dozen students were shot dead as theyprotested Pakistan’s move to impose Urdu.Dozens of private television stations andradio stations that feature music and talk-shows directed at teenagers and people intheir twenties have sprouted in Bangladeshover the last five or six years. Use of“Banglish” in which Bengali and englishwords are mixed seamlessly together iswidespread, as is “Hinglish” in India — acombination of Hindi and english.

qUeTTA: An elderly man waits for customers outside a shop which is closed due to a shutter-down strike called by the Awami national Party and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam on Friday. online

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06Saturday, 18 February, 2012

News

LONDONMAJID KHATTAK

PReSSURe mounts on Pak-istan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chair-man Imran Khan to expelMalik Naveed, former inspec-tor general of Khyber

Pakhtunkhwa Police, after the NationalAccountability Bureau (NAB) announcedto start further investigations against himfor possessing assets of millions of ru-pees.

Naveed, who joined the PTI lastmonth after retiring as IGP, has alreadytwo inquiries against him pending withNAB.

Sources told Pakistan Today thatNaveed allegedly embezzled funds whileprocuring arms and bullet-proof jacketsfor the provincial police – a purchase in-volving Rs 26 billion.

He is also being enquired for possess-ing assets beyond known means of in-come, and a corruption reference againsthim is pending with NAB in which he was

granted bail from an accountability court,but NAB challenged the decision in Pe-shawar High Court and the reference hasbeen accepted for hearing. In the refer-ence, Naveed is accused of making hun-dreds of illegal recruitments in theFrontier Constabulary (FC) while he wasits commandant before being appointedas KP police chief in 2008.

A senior PTI leader said the PTI’sprovincial leadership has asked the chair-man to expel Naveed from the party afterNAB’s announcement to launch a probe

against him. He said the party’s otherleaders believed that the presence of acorrupt person in their ranks would vio-late the party’s agenda against corrup-tion. He said the party’s provincialleaders were against giving membershipto Naveed, but their concerns were ig-nored by the high command. Naveed wasbrought into the party by another formerbureaucrat of KP who is currently an im-portant PTI leader and has strong con-nections in the western countries, the PTIsource said.

Mattani police, peace

lashkar illegally raze

widow’s housePESHAWAR

STAFF rePorT

Officials of the Mattani police and membersof a local peace committee (lashkar) onFriday bulldozed the house of a widow ofZaman Sher and allegedly took awayvaluables for the purported involvement ofher family in a terror act. Later, the widow,Mahroob bibi, and her children protestedagainst the incident outside the PeshawarPress Club. The woman said the Mattanipolice and members of Adezai peacelashkar raided her house in Sambai Khel,Union Council Sher Keera, without anynotice. She told reporters that the raiderslooted valuables, including five tolas ofgold, Rs 20,000 in cash, electronic andother items besides bulldozing he house.Mahroob said the reason behind the raid onher house was said to be their involvementin a blast that occurred in Sambai Khel areaon February 11, 2012 that had claimedseveral lives. However, she rejected theallegations, saying her family had noconnection with any militant group and theresponsibility for the blast had already beentaken by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.

India sure to buyFrench Rafale jets:Indian Air Force

PARISAFP

India will not veer from its decision to awarda 12-billion-dollar contract to France forRafale fighter planes, the Indian Air Forcechief of staff said in an interview publishedonline. “We have a procedure as per thedefence procurement policy that stipulatesthe contract goes to the lowest bidder,”Marshal Norman Anil Kumar Browne toldthe US monthly Aviation InternationalNews at the Singapore Airshow. India choseDassault Aviation’s Rafale plane over theTyphoon built by eurofighter, a consortiummade up of British group BAe Sytems,europe’s eADS and Italy’s Finmeccanica.Browne added in the interview posted onThursday that they have begun negotiationsto finalise the contract for 126 planes andthat any decision now to involve anothermanufacturer would be “procedurallyuntenable”.

ISLAMABADreUTerS

Pakistan’s Reko Diq, an untapped copperand gold mine of fabulous potential, wasmeant to be the biggest foreign invest-ment in the country’s mining sector, butit’s beginning to look more like fool’s goldto the companies involved.

Set in one of the bleakest places onearth, a desert in Balochistan at the footof an extinct volcano, Reko Diq was ex-pected to yield revenues of at least $60billion over the 56-year life of the mine.

Tethyan Copper Company (TCC), ajoint venture between Chile’s Antofagastaand Canadian-based Barrick Gold, hadsunk $220 million over the past five yearsinto exploring the deposit in the ochresand desert, where temperatures reach130 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer. Itwas planning to invest a total of $3.3 bil-lion when the provincial governmentabruptly refused to grant a mining licenselast year.

TCC says it never did get an explana-tion.

“It’s been difficult to define what theiractual issues were,” Tim Livesey, CeO ofTCC, told Reuters in an exclusive inter-view. “We went back to them for clarifica-tion, as many of their issues are not

covered in the Balochistan Mining Regu-lations.”

A local government official, who re-quested anonymity, said TCC took toolong to complete its feasibility study andthat it was “cheating” Balochistan byunder-valuing the worth of the copperand gold.

“They are the monopoly,” the officialsaid angrily. “They are the monopolists ofthe gold! They don’t want to disclose theworth of the gold in Balochistan.”

The case is now before the PakistanSupreme Court, and TCC has filed for in-ternational arbitration. The Balochistangovernment, meanwhile, has recentlyhanded out exploration permits in thearea around Reko Diq to new Pakistaniand Chinese companies with no miningexperience.

Pakistan is already viewed as a highrisk investment due to chronic civil andsectarian conflict, terrorism, corruption,poor regulation and chronic power out-ages. Legal uncertainty would only add tothat list.

Reko Diq was supposed to be a modelof public-private partnership and a meansto lifting an impoverished area whereBaloch insurrectionists have long oper-ated.

The Balochistan government received

a 25 percent stake in the venture for nomoney down. Adding in taxes and royal-ties, the total share of revenues to theprovincial and federal governments wouldcome to just over half.

“From my experience, 25 percent tothe government is extremely generousand it’s not normal,” said Vivienne Lloyd,a senior consultant at the US-based Cop-per Research Group.

According to documents filed with theSupreme Court, TCC projected the minewould produce at least $60 billion worthof ore over its lifespan based on long-termcopper and gold prices of $2.2/pound and$925/ounce, respectively.

Higher spot prices would increasethat sum significantly. Based on recentcopper and gold prices, the mine would beworth almost $120 billion, with Balochis-tan getting a quarter of that after operat-ing costs.

It is this difference in long-term andspot prices that has led to angry allega-tions in the media and from Baloch peoplethat outsiders are exploiting their naturalwealth.

Despite its remoteness, TCC’s Liveseysaid the project would add “percentagepoints” to Pakistan’s gross domestic prod-uct, which grew at just 2.4 percent in fis-cal 2010-11.

PTI chief under pressure to expelformer IGP accused of corruption

SUKKUr: President Asif Zardari condoles the death of Syed Mardan Shah with his

son Pir Pagara Syed Sibghatullah Shah on Friday.

fool’s gold? Pakistan minerift exposes investor risk

Indian president’s son faces probeMUMBAI: The politician son of the Indian president has been asked to explainthe origins of Rs 10 million ($203,000) found in a party worker’s car in hisconstituency, an official said on Friday. The money was discovered by policeduring patrols in Amravati district in the western state of Maharashtra earlier thisweek ahead of local elections which took place on Thursday. The district is thestate assembly constituency of Raosaheb Shekhawat, son of India’s PresidentPratibha Patil, who is a leader of the local Congress party, which rules both thestate government and nationally in New Delhi. “We want Shekhawat and stateministers to explain the whole transaction,” district magistrate Rahul RanjanMahiwal told AFP. “If unaccounted money was being used for the electioncampaign then it is clear violation of the code of conduct and we will takenecessary action against the politicians,” he added. Shekhawat said the money wasto be given to the least affluent Congress candidates to help finance theircampaigns. “I had sought funds from the state Congress committee fordistribution among 87 party candidates. Accordingly, Rs 10 million was sent tome,” he was quoted as saying by The Times of India newspaper. AFP

g Gold and copper project potentially one of the world’s largest

PeSHAWAr: A widow from Mattani and her children protest against the peace lashkar and local police for demolishing her house on Friday. STAff PhoTo

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KARACHIAFTAB cHAnnA

UNIDeNTIFIeD at-tackers set ablazefour trailer trucksbelonging to the Na-tional Logistics Cell

(NLC) on Friday, as the All Pak-istan Oil Tanker Owners’ Associ-ation (APOTOA) protestedagainst the “atrocities” of theNLC authorities at the PortQasim area.

A large number of protestersheaded by APOTOA Senior ViceChairman Shams Shahwanistaged the demonstration againstthe NLC near the Pakistan StateOil (PSO) Terminal at Port Qasim.

Carrying banners and plac-ards inscribed with slogansagainst the NLC, the demonstra-tors shouted slogans against thefederal government’s strategicdevelopment organisation.

Warning suspension of oilsupply to the upcountry areas,the APOTOA-led protestersblocked the National Highway formore than three hours, resultingin a massive traffic jam on theroad leading to the Port QasimAuthority (PQA) and PakistanSteel Mills.

During the protest, at leastfive oil-carrying trailers under

the NLC contract were passingthrough the place when the en-raged demonstrators torchedfour of the trucks while the driverof the fifth vehicle managed tokeep away from the protesters.

Heavy contingents of policeand private security personnel ofthe PQA arrived at the spot todisperse the protesters, report-edly resulting in injuries toaround eight people.

Denying the reports, how-ever, the police said that no onewas injured while the law en-forcers tried to control the lawand order situation.

After negotiations with theauthorities concerned, theprotesting oil suppliers ended theroad blockade and dispersed.

Talking with PakistanToday, the APOTOA senior vicechairman alleged that the NLC

authorities in connivance withsome contractors were interfer-ing in the award of contracts tothe members of the oil tankersassociation. “The transporterswill not tolerate such attitudefrom the NLC management,”Shahwani warned.

He also admitted the NLCtrailers were set ablaze by theAPOTOA-led protesters. “Yes, theprotesters torched at least four oil

trucks of the NLC.”“We have been protesting for

the past couple of months againstthe atrocities and interference ofthe NLC against the oil tankers’association, depriving them ofcontracts,” Shahwani said.

“If the demands of our asso-ciation are not met, the upcoun-try supply of oil, including edibleoil, will be suspended from Feb-ruary 20 (Monday),” he warned.

Saturday, 18 February, 2012

Models flaunt Sindhi, Balochi

dresses at Mehndi extravaganza

Rural women’s fashion brand Sughar

08

KARACHIISMAIL DILAWAr

Lawmakers in the Sindh Assembly (SA)were taken aback during the session onFriday when their colleague, Sardar JamTamachi, blasted the PPP-led legislaturefor being more interested in completingthe 100 parliamentary days rather thandiscussing and resolving the problems oftheir voters.

The House also witnessed the lawmak-ers questioning the role of, what PML-F’sMarvi Rashdi termed as, the “powerless”Supply and Prices Ministry in failing tocheck the price hike in the province whilethe MQM members condemned the 80 to100 percent increase in medicine prices onthe federal level without taking theprovinces onboard.

Meanwhile, taking the floor on apoint of order after SA Speaker NisarKhuhro called the House in order at11:15am, PPP’s Tamachi said that legisla-tures the world over meet the entire yearto resolve the problems of their people,but those in the provincial legislature arefinding it hard to even meet for 100 daysof a parliamentary year that would endon April 5.

“The fact that after every four sittingsthe [assembly] session is adjourned foranother four days, now makes us ashamedof taking the transport allowance/daily al-lowance (TA/DA),” the Public AccountsCommittee chairman said. “It is de-

plorable that we reassemble on Fridays toget the TA/DA and not discuss the prob-lems of Sindh.”

When Sindh Law Minister AyazSoomro termed his point of order as“point of law and order”, Tamachi urgedthe need for a serious attitude in theHouse, saying “Please don’t laugh this[matter] out”.

If viewed in the backdrop of the factthat not a single piece of legislation hascome out of the current SA session whichmet thrice since Monday, the PPP law-maker’s claim carries enough weight.

Talking with Pakistan Today, NPP’sArif Mustafa Jatoi seemed to shareTamachi’s concerns. “Legislation is passedwhen an Assembly meets,” he said. “SinceMonday, we have had only three assemblydays this whole session.”

Asked if he agreed with the impres-sion that for the government it was onlyabout numbers, the NPP leader replied:“Yes! But still 23 days to go.”

Questioned about his own role as acoalition partner, he said: “It is the gov-ernment’s responsibility to bring legisla-tion to the House. I am only abackbencher!”

Jatoi claimed that all 15 of his privatebills were refused by the PPP-led legislature.“The assembly speaker is sitting with 200queries that I submitted last year in July toprotect some ministers from answeringquestions,” he said.

During the proceedings, when

Tamachi, Rashdi, Nusrat Seher Ab-basi, Khalid Ahmed, Faisal Subzwariand Dr Ahmed Ali Shah urged the needfor an effective and integrated pricecontrol system in the province, SindhBureau of Supply and Prices ControlMinister Shoaib Bukhari expressed hishelplessness to check profiteering dueto lack of magisterial powers with hisinspectors.

With the minister stressing the needfor applying Article 148 and some“brainstorming”, the speaker ex-pressed concern over a power-less pricec o n t r o ld e p a r t -m e n ts a y i n ga“ c h a i nof com-m a n d ”must bee s t a b -l i s h e dt h r o u g hmutual consultations.

Later, giving a statement underRule 215, Sindh Health Minister DrSagheer Ahmed criticised the federalauthorities for not consulting with theprovinces while allowing drug sellersto increase the prices of medicines as-tronomically.

Condemning the price hike, the min-

ister said that patients could not be left atthe mercy of profiteers in the drug mar-kets and demanded the House to discussthe issue.

Replying in an affirmative, Khuhrosaid of following the required proceduresto bring the debate in the House.

A PPP lawmaker, Javed Hussain Shah,

submitted a privilege motion against theSukkur police officials, accusing them ofbreaching his privilege by raiding hisfarmhouse and detaining the staff presentthere for 12 hours unwarranted. The chairformed a special nine-member committeeto review the motion and report back tothe House.

lawmakers feel the heat as Tamachi lets it out■ PPP legislator lambastes members for having more interest in completing parliamentary days rather than resolving voters’ problems

■ MQM legislators condemn sky-high increase in medicine prices

■ Sukkur police under fire for breaching privilege of PPP’s MPA

Two ‘sectarian’

murders in

Federal B AreaKARACHI

STAFF rePorT

In what appears to be a case of sec-tarian murders, two men belongingto the Deoband sect were gunneddown in Block 16 of the Federal BArea on Friday.Unidentified assailants opened fireon the two men sitting outside theshop Dilshad Autos located in theSaghir Centre.They were killed on the spot, andtheir bodies were taken to the Ab-basi Shaheed Hospital where doc-tors confirmed their death.Police said the victims were identi-fied as 50-year-old Rizwan Shamsiand 42-year-old Akbar Ilyas, andwere residents of the same areawhere they were killed.Quoting witnesses, the police saidthree men on two motorcyclesasked Shamsi about Ilyas. When hetold them that the man sitting withhim is Ilyas, they gunned both ofthem down.Liaquatabad Superintendent ofPolice Nauman Ahmed Siddiquisaid the murders could be a sec-tarian crime as the victim AkbarIlyas’ brother Asghar Ilyas is as-sociated with the banned Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP). However,he maintained that the two vic-tims had no affiliation with theorganisation.“The police recovered multipleshells of 9mm pistols from thecrime scene,” he added.The spokesman for the Ahle SunnatWal Jamaat – the new name of theoutlawed SSP – told Pakistan Todaythat the victims were not his organi-sation’s members.

Rehman Malik to ‘grace’ SAwith his presence today?

KARACHI: A special session of the Sindh Assembly has been convened today(Saturday) where Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik is expected to brief the

provincial lawmakers over the current security situation in the country,Pakistan Today has learnt. This would perhaps be the first time that

the interior minister would be briefing the Sindh legislature,possibly over the current state of law and order in the metropolisas well as the rest of the terrorism-hit country.

The current volatile situation in the most-populated city of thecountry warrants such a briefing as cold-blooded murders of polit-ical opponents in Lyari have become a matter of routine. On Friday,unlike the usual adjournment of the provincial legislature session

until Monday, Sindh Assembly SpeakerNisar Khuhro adjourned the House untilSaturday 10:00 am. Sindh Law MinisterAyaz Soomro, who, on Fridays usually,

requests the chair to put off the sessionuntil Monday, was also seen a bit upset. Aprovincial lawmaker, requesting

anonymity, told Pakistan Today at the As-sembly Secretariat that the Saturday session

was convened for the interior minister’s brief-ing. The legislator, however, added that the as-

sembly officials had only verbally conveyed themessage to him during Friday’s sitting. “I have no offi-

cial intimation so far,” he said. iSmAil dilAWAR

Sindh ASSembly SeSSion

Protesters turn fire on four

NLC trailers... literally■ Oil tanker association-led demonstration against “atrocities of NLC authorities”

■ Unidentified attackers torch four NLC trucks at Port Qasim

■ Transporters warn of suspending oil supply from Feb 20

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karachi08PakistaN today

Saturday, 18 February, 2012

KARACHIAMAr gUrIro

PAKISTANI ruralwomen’s first-everfashion brand‘Sughar’ waslaunched by the

Participatory DevelopmentInitiatives (PDI) on Friday.

These women from re-mote villages of Sindh andBalochistan are skilled inmaking embroidered materi-als, but their work is not pro-moted at the national levelbecause they lack the capac-ity to market their products.

To introduce the ruralwomen’s work in the nationalmarket, PDI launched Sug-har and organised a fashionevent ‘Mehndi extravaganza’on Friday.

In the show headed byrenowned fashion designer

Parkha Khan, celebratedmodels walked the rampflaunting the beautifuldresses made by the ruralwomen of Sindh andBalochistan’s tribal areas.

By launching this brand,PDI intends to provide theembroidered materials bythese women much-neededspace in the local market aswell as to ensure that theygain enough profit and idealcustomers.

PDI aims for Sughar tobecome Pakistan’s first-everbrand that is created, de-signed and owned by ruralwomen, increasing their con-fidence and self-respect aswell as empowering thesewomen to take charge oftheir lives.

Women from Sindh’srural villages attended thefashion show and expressed

their pride and delight overthe momentous launch ofSughar.

Others in the audiencealso showed an interest inSughar products, which in-clude trendy hand bags,clutches and dresses beauti-fully embroidered by ruralwomen.

The designs and patternsof the Sughar brand productsare inspired by the traditionsand the folklore of Pakistan.

Famous actors JavedSheikh and BehrozeSabzwari as well as top mod-els and fashion designersparticipated in the extrava-ganza.

eight fashion designers,including the people behindsuch brands as Mona J,Nukti Dana and DewDropsCouture, were part of thisgrand fashion show.

Models flaunt Sindhi, Balochi dresses

at Mehndi Extravaganza■ PDI launches rural women’s first-ever fashion brand Sughar

indUSTRioUSneSS PAyS off

‘Karachi Amn festival’kicks off today

KARACHISTAFF rePorT

The ‘Karachi Amn Festival’ – to kick off Sat-urday (today) – would play an effective rolein promoting parity, friendliness and unityin the city, said Karachi Metropolitan Cor-poration (KMC) Municipal CommissionerMatanat Ali Khan.

Khan said this during a visiting to theJheel Park, where the festival would for-mally kick off and where thousands ofmusic lovers are expected to attend a spe-cial event.

The municipal commissioner said thefestival is a joint effort of the Sindh govern-

ment, the Karachi commissioner, the ArtsCouncil of Pakistan-Karachi and the KMC,and such programmes portray to the worlda soft image of the metropolis.

Khan also inspected the arrangementsmade for the festival at the Jheel Park andsaid, “Besides police officials, around 100City Wardens of the KMC will be deputedon the occasion.”

east deputy commissioner, east Munic-ipal Commissioner Shafiqur Rehman, Sen-ior Health Services Director Dr ShaukatZaman, Arts Council of Pakistan PresidentAhmed Shah, Secretary ejaz Ahmed Fa-rooqui and other officers were also accom-panying Khan.

KARACHIIMDAD SooMro

A constitutional petition was filed in theSindh High Court (SHC) on Friday, seek-ing foolproof security for judges andtheir families. The matter is likely to betaken up on Monday.

The petition was under Article 199 ofthe constitution by human rights activistIqbal Kazmi.

In the petition, Kazmi submitted thataccording to Article 4 of the constitution,providing security of life to every citizenis the basic responsibility of the state.

Citing the federal government

through the interior secretary and theSindh government through the homesecretary, the inspector general of policeand the Rangers director general as re-spondents, the petitioner further submit-ted that government has providedfoolproof security to ministers and gov-ernment high-ups, but no proper meas-ures have been taken for judges and theirfamilies.

In his petition, he stated the admin-istrator judge of the anti-terrorismcourts, also a serving judge of the SHC,has received threats on many occasionsand the home of apex court judge AmirHani Muslim was also attacked some

days ago.The chief minister and his family

have foolproof security and also beenprovided with special squads, but at thesame time, the SHC chief justice, thehead of the provincial judiciary, has beengiven no such facilities.

The petitioner added on September11, 2007, when a bench of high court wasproceeding with the matter of May 12,2007 carnage, hundreds of people en-tered the court and disturbed the work.

Kazmi concluded his petition thatsuch an incident can reoccur and the re-sponsible quarters be directed to providefoolproof security to judges.

Petition seeking securityfor judges filed

Pml-Arbab candidate moves

court for fair PS-57 by-pollKARACHI

IMDAD SooMro

The Sindh High Court issued notices tothe federal and Sindh governments, theelection Commission secretary, theprovincial election commissioner and theNADRA chairman on Friday, on a consti-tutional petition seeking fair by-electionfor the provincial assembly constituency,PS-57, of Badin district.

The petition was filed by formerprovincial minister Ali Bux Shah aliasPapoo Shah. The PS-57 is vacant after theresignation of former home minister DrZulfikar Mirza. The court also directedthe petitioner to cite the Mirza’s HusnainMirza, who is contesting the poll as thePakistan People’s Party candidate, as arespondent on Saturday (today).

The petitioner, a candidate of thePakistan Muslim League-Arbab Rahim

group, submitted in his petition that pre-poll rigging has started for the by-electionas some 19,000 votes have been cancelledon the wishes of the government. Hequoted the Section 10 of the electoral Act1974, according which in any case of can-cellation and admission of new votes,consent may be taken from the people ofthe constituency, but in Badin neitherany consent nor any objection or advicehad been taken from the people.

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Road carpeting under way at the Korangi Causeway. STAff PhoTo

karachi 09PakistaN today

Saturday, 18 February, 2012

KARACHIAMAr gUrIro

Mangroves are one of the perma-nent features of the coastal areasand they have proven to be the firstline of defence against natural dis-asters, said Dr Tahir Qureshi of theInternational Union for Conserva-tion of Nature (IUCN) in his pres-entation on Friday.

Qureshi was addressing theninth training workshop on wetlandconservation and management con-ducted at the Wetland Centre atSandspit.

The workshop was organised bythe World Wide Fund for Nature-Pak-

istan (WWF-P) in collaboration withthe Department of Zoology of the Uni-versity of Karachi as well as the Scien-tific & Cultural Society of Pakistan.

Addressing the participants ofthe workshop, Qureshi said Pak-istan’s coastline currently lackscommunity involvement in theplanning and implementation ofdevelopment works.

Under its ‘Integrated Approachfor Mangrove Conservation’ proj-ect, the WWF-P organised a trip tothe Wetland Centre and conductedan awareness-raising session for thestudents participating in the work-shop aimed at creating awarenessabout the significance of wetlands

as well as about the issues of man-grove conservation and the rolethey play for the environment.

Dr Zaheer Khan introduced theobjective of the workshop, followingwhich Dr Babar Hussain, in-chargeof the Wetland Centre, talkingabout the issues confronting thewetlands of the country, told theparticipants that wetlands are di-minishing at a faster pace due toscarcity of the required amount offreshwater and illegal occupations.

Hussain said many migratorybirds, which used to arrive in win-ter, have also disappeared.

The careless attitude of the de-partments concerned has contributed

towards the worsening condition ofthe wetlands, he added.

He emphasised promoting wet-land tourism in Sindh, which has agreat potential to be utilised forgenerating revenue.

He said the media could play aconstructive role in addressing theissues of wetlands and mangroveconservation in the province.

“Wetlands also help reducepoverty and create livelihood op-portunities for thousands of peoplearound the world,” he added.

He demanded the governmentfor sustainable use of water resourcesand practical policies in solving is-sues of wetlands and mangroves.

‘mangroves first line of defenceagainst natural disasters’■ wwF-P conducts training workshop ‘wetland Conservation & Management 2012’ at

wetland Centre ■ IUCN’s Dr Tahir Qureshi says Pakistan’s coastline lacks community

involvement in development works

KARACHIgHULAM ABBAS

THe Karachi electric Sup-ply Company (KeSC) hasserved a seven-day noticeof power supply discon-nection to the Karachi

Water & Sewerage Board (KWSB)over non-payment of dues that hadswelled to Rs 16.6 billion by lastmonth.

Through a letter dated February16, the power company informed themanaging director of the water utilitythat a sum of Rs 16.6 billion has beenaccumulated as net outstanding duesup to January 2012 against the KWSBdue to non-payment of electricitydues.

“In order to affect recovery, yoursupply is liable to be disconnectedunder Section 24(1) of the electricityAct-1910. We hereby advise you topay a minimum amount of Rs 1 bil-lion within the next seven days of thenotice. Upon the expiry of the men-tioned date, power supply to allKWSB facilities, including the pump-ing stations, will be disconnectedwithout further reference on the sub-ject matter,” said the letter.

According to sources, the failureof payments among government andsemi-government organisations isdue to the unresolved circular debt,

which has swelled to over Rs 300 bil-lion.

Sources said due to the unre-solved debt issue, the KeSC itself hasbeen unable to disburse over Rs 30billion it owes the Sui Southern GasCompany (SSGC).

The government and the organi-sations concerned are yet to find away out of the circular debt issue,added the sources.

It is worth mentioning here thatin a letter dated October 20, 2011,sent to the secretary of the FinanceMinistry, the KWSB had requestedthe ministry that as the dues it owedthe KeSC had swelled to Rs 14 billionand its receivables from the federalgovernment’s departments had alsoreached the same amount, the min-istry should urgently resolve the issuethrough an adjustment mechanism.

To resolve the circular debt issue,the KWSB requested in a letter thatits outstanding dues be releasedthrough the federal adjuster and bepaid directly to the SSGC to offset theKeSC’s dues to the gas utility.

The water utility said this wouldhelp the power company receive ade-quate gas supply from the SSGC,which is essential in meeting the in-creasing electricity demand of theKeSC’s consumers, including theKWSB’s pumping stations.

In the letter, the water utility said

due to its current financial situation,it is unable to affect payment to thepower company, leading to increas-ing payables, which in turn resultedin the KeSC disconnecting electricitysupply to various facilities of theKWSB.

The water utility confirmed thatan amount of Rs 14 billion, excludingsurcharges, has been accrued with re-spect to outstanding payment forutilisation of power supplied by theelectric company up to September2011.

According to the letter, theKWSB’s receivables due from variousdepartments of the federal govern-ment are approximately of the samemagnitude.

“To address the dire situation, weare making a payment of Rs 50 mil-lion immediately and Rs 50 millionby the end of October 2011. For fu-ture payments, a meeting under thechairmanship of the Sindh governoris scheduled at the Governor Houseto agree upon a payment plan,” theletter said.

The KWSB further said, “We arealready increasing our monthly col-lection from our customers and havealso made some significant efforts,leading to increase in revenue. Con-sidering the aforementioned prob-lems, we request for urgent action inthis regard.”

‘Cough up a billion rupees

or it’s power off for you!’■ The water utility owes the power company Rs 16.6 billion in dues

KeSC GiVeS KWSb A WeeK

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karachiPakistaN today

weATHeR UPDATeS

Low

28°CClear skiesHigh

16°C 16%Humidity

SUNDAy MONDAy TUeSDAy30°C I 14°C 27°C I 21°C 26°C I 14°C

PRAyeR TIMINGS

Starting time in Karachi

Fajr Sunrise Zuhr Asr Maghrib Isha

5:48 7:04 12:46 4:02 6:28 7:45

CITy DIReCTORy

POLICe 15

BOMB DISPOSAL 15, 99212667

FIRe BRIGADe 16, 99215007, 99215008

eDHI 115, 32310066-2310077

KHIDMAT-e-KHALQ FOUNDATION 36333811

ReD CReSCeNT 35833973

GOveRNOR’S HOUSe 136

CHIeF MINISTeR’S HOUSe 99202051

MOTORwAy POLICe 130

eMeRGeNCy HeLP

HOSPITALS

ABBASI SHAHeeD 99260400-09

CIvIL 99215749, 99215960

JINNAH 99201300-39

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TABBA 36811841-50

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HUSSAINI 32238405-8

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COMPLAINT

KeSC 118

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RAILwAyS

INQUIRy 117, 99213565-6

CITy STATION 99213538

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AIRPORT

FLIGHT INQUIRy 114

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COLLeGeS / UNIveRSITIeS

KARACHI UNIveRSITy 99261300-06

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SMIC 99217501-3

FAST-NU 111128128, 34100541-7

SZABIST 111922478

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IvS 35861039-40

10Saturday, 18 February, 2012

e SHArP

An acoustic rock ‘n’ roll sessionfeaturing e Sharp on February 19 atThe 2nd Floor. Call 35389033 formore information.

MUSICON FEBRUARY 19 AT 07:30 PMVENUE: T2F 2.0

groUP SHoW

A group exhibition from February23 to 29 at the Grandeur artgallery. Call 35435744 for moreinformation.

ART EXHIBITIONSTARTS FEBRUARY 23 AT 05:00 PMVENUE: GRANDEUR

ArT BooK FAIr 2012

Unicorn Gallery’s third art bookfair ‘Art Book Fair 2012’ onFebruary 18 and 19. Call 35831220for more information.

BOOK EXHIBITIONON FEBRUARY 18 AND 19VENUE: UNICORN GALLERY

KARACHISTAFF rePorT

THe Sindh government has es-timated that Rs 40 billionwould be required for over-hauling the province’s irriga-tion system, participants of a

meeting of held at the Chief Minister’sHouse on Friday were informed.

They were also told that the LeftBank Outfall Drain (LBOD), which wasresponsible for the disaster in Badin andits adjoining districts, will be modified.

During the meeting, Chief MinisterQaim Ali Shah directed the officers andengineers of the Irrigation Departmentto drain rainwater from the affectedareas of Mirpurkhas and other districtson a war-footing basis.

“President Asif Ali Zardari is moreconcerned about present situation, asmany areas are still submerged and thenew monsoon season is likely to start be-tween July and August,” he said.

“As such, prompt precautionarymeasures need to be evolved for ad-dressing the current lapses and protect-ing the irrigation system, theagricultural set-up and other parts of theinfrastructure,” he added.

Shah directed that efforts should bemade to divert the water of the LBODinto the natural water paths.

Regarding hindrances, obstacles andillegal encroachments on the natural

water paths, Shah said legal actionshould be taken to have them removed.He further directed that there should beno more delay as far as draining waterfrom the flood-hit areas is concerned.

The chief minister told the IrrigationDepartment to further improve its per-formance and implement schemes to re-vive its reputation.

He directed the irrigation secretaryto prepare a road map for draining floodwater. The participants of the meetingwere informed that 83 percent water hasbeen drained so far and 17 percent is stillinundating the affected districts.

Finance Minister Murad Ali Shahsaid the LBOD will be modified and thewater from natural water paths will bedisposed of in Shakoor Lake. Whereverthe pathways are disrupted by cuts,siphons will be constructed.

He said the estimated cost for over-hauling the irrigation system is Rs 40billion.

Irrigation Minister Jam SaifullahDharejo said the Irrigation Departmentwill undertake the development and re-habilitation work as early as possible,while quality and transparency will alsobe ensured.

The irrigation secretary informedthe participants of the meeting that ascheme costing Rs 5 billion for supply-ing the saline water of the LBOD to Tharhas been approved and work on it will bestarted soon.

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The health ministry has recently given the green light tomany pharmaceutical corporations to increase prices. Recently,this ministry was said to be inactive where checking up on theprovision of certain health facilities was concerned but itspurred into action as soon as big corporate interests were in-volved. Obviously, what ministry wouldn’t become ambulant

where soul-less entity was concerned, living breathing beings bedarned.

This is one area where rationalisation-of-tariffs argumentmight not apply.

SAMINA ALahore

Editor’s mail 11Saturday, 18 February, 2012

Bottled bigotryThe debate of Shezan juice being

banned by the LBA has taken Pakistan bya storm, thanks to the social media. Thedrink has been banned because the man-ufacturing company is owned by an Ah-madi. Not only is this wrong buthypocritical as well. Pakistanis use prod-ucts manufactured by multi-national cor-porations (MNC’s) everyday that areowned by non-Muslims. No one hasshown any hatred against them. ButShezan juice is being banned because ofa religious matter.

I think the religious side is beingused as a cover to hide the real reason forits ban. either its Pakistani competitor(s)are buying it out or they think thatShezan will be a threat in the future if itcaptures a wide market share.

The Lahore Bar Association (LBA)must rethink their decision, because thisis a hateful decision and it just doesn’tmake any sense. Why don’t the LBA peo-ple ban all financial institutions as theyare running on interest? Why don’t theyban the use of all cell phones, because allmajor brands are owned by non-Mus-lims? The way religious bigotry is beingused to ban Shezan, frankly speaking, il-lustrates everything that is wrong withthis country.

MUHAMMAD OMAR IFTIKHARKarachi

Reopening Nato routesThe re-opening of Nato routes is an-

other example of our leaders’ incompe-tence and ruthlessness. They have onceagain shown that they cannot ignoreAmericans as their rule depends onAmerican patronage and their coffers onAmerican money.

People trust those who have someself-respect but, unfortunately, our lead-ers have none in the face of the world.even now, they are only thinking aboutsaving their government from collapserather than about the country’s integrityand honour.

Mr Ahmad Mukhtar’s statement is achildish one. How can we re-open theroutes on ‘humanitarian’ grounds?Where was this humanitarianism whenour soldiers were killed in a Natoairstrike?

ASMA AHSANIslamabad

Politicising the youthMany politics parties have started

giving the youth demographic much im-portance but this is not necessarily agood thing. Some political parties aretrying to hijack the youth and only limitthem to politics and use them for theirown interest. Political parties should givethe youth a platform to express their re-spective talents but must refrain fromusing them for violent ends and to pro-mote polarisation. There is a differencebetween healthy and unhealthy politici-sation.

I feel political parties should organisedifferent kind of events for the youth todemonstrate their true talent. events likedeclamations contests and Model UnitedNations (MUNs) should be organised toinculcate leadership skills. Likewise,sports ands and other events should alsobe organised to channel the youth’s ener-gies into positive directions.

MAJID TAIMOORLahore

Moral corruptionNations and countries decide their

policies keeping their national interestas the focal point. However, that shallnot be seen as a moral contradiction ofwhat they have been preaching other-wise. If this is the case, then it amountsto be termed as double standards, ormore bluntly, it is moral corruption.

The US Congress is in the process ofdeciding to confer Congressional GoldMedal on Dr Shakil Afridi, the doctorwho allegedly helped Americans to trackOBL in Abbottabad, while at the sametime Bradley Manning, the intelligenceanalyst who allegedly leaked secret doc-uments including combat videos to Wik-ileaks, is going to face court martial andcould be imprisoned for life if convicted.But here in Pakistan, the advice fromthe Pakistani judicial commission inves-tigating the 2 May OBL fiasco, is toprosecute Dr Shakil Afridi for treason.He could face death penalty if treasoncharges are proved against him in Pak-istani courts.

Where do we stand on moralgrounds: is helping someone in catchingworld’s most wanted terrorist an act oftreason? Does releasing some docu-ments showing the real face of our rul-ing elite fall under ‘aiding enemy’charges (good enough for court-mar-tial)?

How to weigh between national in-terest and moral corruption?

MASOOD KHANJubail, Saudi Arabia

Focus on the causesViolent extremism or terrorism has

become the most pressing political prob-lem. Random violence has not been con-trolled across the globe. The main reasonof the failure is that we concentrate onafter effects of terrorist attacks while ig-noring why they take place. Concentra-tion is given only to the victims of suchacts.

Violent extremism takes place whena group of people feel discriminatedagainst, marginalised or deprived offtheir due rights. When such people donot get their rights constitutionally, theyare motivated to use extra-constitutionalmeans to snatch them away.

There cannot be one motive of allterrorist attacks. In different socio-eco-nomic groups, there can be different mo-tives. Violent extremism is used byterrorists to put pressure on the govern-ment to accept their demands or toachieve a certain end. Feeling of revengeis also a powerful motive.

Hence rather than looking at theconsequences of terrorism, there is needto focus on the causes and motives of theterrorists. But even for that one overar-ching model of why people are terroristsshould be avoided.

AMNAH AMJADLUMS, Lahore

On ending corruptionPolitical corruption has plagues Pak-

istan adding to its many economic woeswhile inflation has risen to intolerablelimits, making the life of the commonman miserable.

It is a well-recognised fact that it isdifficult to end political corruption in theparliamentary system, as high electionexpenses and the following horse tradingcost, is generally recovered through cor-ruption, after achieving ministerial jobsby the elected representatives.

It is therefore not understandablehow Imran Khan and other leaders claimthat they will end all corruption afterbeing elected within a few months. Thiscan only be done in a presidential sys-tem, where the elected representativesare not given any ministerial job, as isthe case in the US system.

Therefore, corruption can only bestopped if the presidential system is en-forced in Pakistan and no elected personis appointed as minister or on any otheradministrator. This will also drasticallycut down election expenses, as honestand capable persons, to be elected to theAssembly, will never be able to spend afortune in the election.

Switching to a presidential system, oramending the current system for it to re-move this systemic glitch in the electoralprocess, is an option worth looking into.

S M H RIZVIKarachi

The advent of 3G3G refers to 3rd generation mobile

telephony technology, superseding 2G.The primary focus of 2G was on SMS andverbal communication. The bandwidth of2G was 30-200KHZ. Later 2.5G technol-ogy was also introduced but it failed tobring any revolutionary changes. How-ever, it was expected that 3G will bring arevolution in the IT and telecom sector.

The Pakistan Telecommunication au-thority (PTA) has given a green signal for3G services for the users of mobile net-works after a long time. For this purpose,the government will invite bids from for-eign and local players and bidding is ex-pected in current month.

Now the question arises that how will3G affect our economy, our behavioursand our norms. It is expected that by li-censing to telecom companies, PTA willgenerate revenue of almost $1 billion atthe start which will be quite beneficial for

PTA. But the bidding process must betransparent and free of corruption.

3G will also have many effects on dif-ferent sectors of the economy. To justifythis, I will share my own experience. I,with my executives, used to visit ourfranchisees throughout Pakistan to moni-tor their activities, to organise meetingsand to inspect the physical infrastructureof some particular franchise. Thisprocess continued throughout the yearand increased our expenditures. But ourorganisation is saving almost 50% ontravel costs thanks to 3G-enables servicessuch as video-conferencing. Because 3Gwill facilitate long-distance training,meetings, monitoring etc, it might have asizeable impact on the transport sectorespecially airline revenues that comefrom corporate travel.

3G may also have an impact on thehealth sector in Pakistan. Doctors will be

able to diagnose their patients from afarwithout any expensive network infra-structure. It will also be beneficial tosmall hospitals in improving service de-livery.

The availability of 3G will also urgemany users to switch to 3G-compatiblehandsets. This will then increase theprofits of these manufacturing compa-nies.

The internet facility is not availablein the rural areas of Pakistan right now.But with 3G, it will be available whereverthere is cellular network coverage. Thus,the availability of 3G will enhance IT op-erations throughout the country in bothurban and rural areas. Users can savetime and TV and other media will be eas-ily accessible. It will also have a negativeimpact on the print media in Pakistan,because it will enable the users to con-nect to the internet through their mobiles

at any time of the day. The government must anticipate the

consequences of 3G. It should work to re-alise some future revenue streamsthrough taxation. The government couldimpose additional taxes on the multina-tional mobile companies as their profitswill increase because of 3G services. Thegovernment should also issue 3G licenseas soon as possible to stretch the volumeof transactions which will increase therevenue.

Additional laws and regulations willalso be required to deal with the impactof 3G. The government should also fore-see its negative effects on our educationalinstitutions, copyrights laws and e-Laws.Through proper management and timelydecisions, 3G could be very beneficial forPakistan.

ADIL SOHAILLahore

cure or curse?

On the yDA’s strikeThis is apropos of news item about

the strike of Young Doctors in Punjab(Feb 16). It is very unfortunate that peo-ple from this respected profession areprotesting for the reinstatement of twodoctors belonging to Punjab Institute ofCardiology (PIC). They are doing so justto pressurise the government to suc-cumbing to their petty and mundane de-mand.

When the health secretary and othertop officials of the health departmenthave stepped down and a judicial inquiryis underway, such a demand is againstthe principles of fair play and justice. Theworst thing is that the medical superin-tendents of public sector hospitals failedto safeguard the rights of poor patientscoming from far flung areas who weredenied treatment in these hospitals.

These so called “young doctors” areplaying in the hands of a few senior doc-tors who want to blackmail governmentby these tactics. It is a violation of theSupreme Court’s orders as it barred doc-tors from going on strike putting rights ofpatients at stake. The medical professionis a noble service and the YDA cannot be-have like an ordinary labour unions dueto the nature of this profession. Thesehealth managers of public sector hospi-tals have failed to implement theSupreme Court’s orders putting the livesof patients at risk.

PIC is a heavenly place for doctors asthis hospital was made doctor-friendlyinstead of patient-friendly. Some doctorsdraw salaries on a disproportionate basisand there is nobody to question them.May I dare ask if the doctor communityis above the law?

It is my considered opinion thatthere can be no improvement in publicsector hospitals unless we appoint non-

doctors as head of the institutions be-cause the current medical superintend-ents are unable to regulate and controlconsultants of the hospital.

FAROOQ BASHIR BUTTLahore

Buy one, get two freeA news item stated that ‘Pakistan

links the restoration of Nato supply andrenewal of full cooperation in fighting thewar on terror to the waiver of US opposi-tion to our IP pipeline with Iran.’

In the corporate world, this is called‘buy one, get two free’.

Z A KAZMIKarachi

Team Green’s flip-flopsFor decades, our cricket team has re-

mained a dark horse as we have alwaysfailed to consistently perform. And this iswhat is happening again. After winningthe test series in a superb manner, ourcricket team has failed spectacularly inthe first two ODIs. The batting collapsedpoorly in the first one day. every bats-man was in a hurry and flurry. No posi-tive game plan was made in bothmatches. Misbah-ul-Haq reminded us ofhis World Cup semi-final stint. His be-lated endeavour for runs cost Pakistanthe match. Afridi and Younis both miser-ably failed as did most others (either fail-ing to start or failing to convert goodstarts). Mohsin Khan, a good batsman inhis heydays, must give some useful tipsto the batsmen to remain cool and calmand go for big partnerships instead ofthrowing away their wickets.

The experts and commentators arelaughing at our performance and are ofthe opinion that the bubble of our suc-cess has burst immediately. Pakistan

cannot now win the ODI series. Crum-bling instantly is very painful for cricketlovers watching the game back home.The team management should lift themorale of the players and ensure victoryin the remaining two matches.

IFTIKHAR MIRZAIslamabad

Transportation woesThis letter intends to draw the atten-

tion of transport committee of KarachiUniversity. It's evident that some 25,000students are present in morning andevening programmes combined. A ma-jority of them are girls who come fromfar off areas to attend classes. Yet, thereis no adequate and reliable transport sys-tem available for the students whichcould provide them a safe and comfort-able journey to and from the university.

The bus points are in appalling con-ditions with rusted roofs and brokenwindows. The number of students in asingle point are triple than the actual ca-pacity. Therefore, the students have tomake a very risky journey everyday. Andthe evening students are not providedwith any facilities at all. Girls are in sucha great number that they cling to thedoor with one foot and the conductorcovers them with his hands to protectthem from falling.

Apart from this, we students have togo through everyday humiliation and in-dignity as our totally packed points are asource of amusement to people on theroads and a miserable shock to parents.

Therefore, it is my humble request tothe authorities that this issue must begiven serious consideration. The corpo-rate sector could also donate buses to al-leviate the suffering of students.

ZOHRA TAIYEBKarachi

Send your letters to: Letters to Editor, Pakistan Today, 4-Shaarey Fatima Jinnah, Lahore, Pakistan. Fax: +92-42-36298302. E-mail: letters@pakistantoday.com.pk. Letters should be addressed to Pakistan Today exclusively.

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comment12Saturday, 18 February, 2012

Arif NizamiEditor

Lahore – Ph: 042-36298305-10 Fax: 042-36298302Karachi – Ph: 021-34330811-3 Fax: 021-34330900Islamabad – Ph: 051-2287414-6 Fax: 051-2287417

Web: www.pakistantoday.com.pk Email: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

Doctor, heal thyself

The Hippocratic Oath

While the leadership of the Young DoctorsAssociation (YDA) has withdrawn the five dayold strike after the intervention of the SC, theclosure of the OPDs on the second day running

in all teaching hospitals of Lahore has left bitter memoriesand raised vital questions.

One doubts if the doctors who forcibly locked the OPDshad ever heard of the Hippocratic Oath. The oath ishistorically taken by physicians and other healthcareprofessionals to practice medicine ethically. It requiresamong other things never to do harm to a patient. OnThursday, treatment was denied to the patients at indoordepartments also. Some of the doctors armed themselveswith clubs and iron rods and roughed up anxious relativesbegging them to save the patients, in cases children, broughtfrom far-off towns. In PIC, colleagues willing to treat seriousemergency cases or conduct crucial operations were forced toleave. This is a reflection on the teaching system that churnsout doctors by the thousands every year but with manyhaving little sense of the moral obligations of a healer. Thiswas bound to happen in a system where many topmostdoctors running teaching hospitals work till late hours doinglucrative private practice or spend time courtingbureaucrats, and thus can pay little attention to the health ofthe system.

What has happened is also a reflection on the quality ofthe governance in Punjab. That the Punjab governmentfinally decided to withdraw the cases against senior PICdoctors, which caused the strike, possibly leads to two equallypainful conclusions. First, that the cases were weak and thePIC doctors were framed to relieve the political pressure onthe chief minister who was accused of neglecting his duties ashealth minister. Second, the cases were genuine butwithdrawn under mounting pressure from the doctors. In thesecond case, the CM has shown a highly dangerous directionto organised groups to get their illegitimate demandsaccepted.

Trilateral summit

Mending fences

The Americans, one assumes, wouldn’t be all toopleased. Nor would the Saudis. The Afghan andPakistani presidents sitting together was all well andgood but the presence of Mahmoud Ahmedinejad

would have rankled.

Well, tough luck. The Americans will up and leave – asthey have done before – but the region stays put. Andmending fences with neighbours is never a bad idea. If wecan strive for peace with the traditional nemesis India, howdo we argue against good relations with Iran andAfghanistan?

When the Iranian president spoke out against “foreigninterference” in Afghanistan – also an irony, it has to bementioned – Washington’s apprehensions would have nodoubt been piqued.

Sovereignty might be a concept thrown around a littlemore than it should be these days but it does exist and weshouldn’t shy away from pointing out any infringements. Allstates have the right to seek out better relations with otherstates and other states - allies they might well be – have torespect that.

In addition to ideology, the cold rationale of economicinterests also figures in the whole calculus. Pakistan is anenergy insecure country. Report after report by foreign tradeanalysts confirm that the biggest problem Pakistan’smanufacturing sector faces is a shortage of energy, whichleads to a significant loss of employment opportunities aswell. The US would like the TAPI power deal to take care ofthat. But the IPI pipeline is also an attractive proposition. Itis up to the government of Pakistan to decide which project(or, perhaps both of them) we should sign up for.

The trilateral summit was, at the end of the day, aboutAfghanistan. It was about the post-American situation in thecountry. For that, Pakistan is expected to exercise theleverage at its disposal in bringing the Taliban to thenegotiating table. The Pakistani foreign minister huffed andpuffed, when speaking about how little they could promise onthat front but no one doubts, really, how things will actuallyplay out. All may not be too hunky dory with the Iranians inthe future because of that. A tripwire here, a tripwire there.

on the trilateral summit

The trilateral summit betweenPakistan, Afghanistan and Iranhas helped in bringing thethree Islamic neighbours andstakeholders in the region

closer on how to end the Afghanistan im-broglio. However, intractable problemsand differences remain.

The summit has taken place at a timewhen in the wake of Tehran’s burgeoningnuclear programme, a standoff betweenthe US and Iran seems imminent. On theother hand, perennial tensions betweenWashington and Islamabad have per-ilously put relations on a continuousdownward spiral.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai ismiffed with the US for holding secret talkswith the Taliban behind his back. The Tal-iban on the other hand do not take him se-riously, claiming that he is nothing morethan a quisling whose writ in Afghanistandoes not extend beyond Kabul.

Obviously, it is highly unlikely thatKarzai can be part of a possible Taliban-ledbroad-based government in Kabul by2014. In any case, his term will expire bythen. He knows that his mentors, true totheir colours, are bound to abandon him in

the ultimate analysis.A clear and present danger

to the stability of the region isthe heightened tension be-tween Washington andTehran. Israel considers Iran’snuclear programme as an exis-tential threat and is bendingover backwards to co-optWashington to take pre-emp-tive action through militarymeans.

Recent attacks on Israelidiplomats in Delhi and Tbilisihave been blamed on Tehranwho has vehemently deniedany involvement. It is anothermatter that Israel earlier hadclaimed responsibility for bla-tantly assassinating Iraniannuclear engineers.

The likelihood of Tel Avivlaunching a pre-emptive at-tack on Iranian nuclear instal-lations and enrichmentfacilities is being openly dis-cussed. If worst comes toworst, the possibility of Wash-ington chipping in or directlyattacking Tehran is not beingruled out.

easier said than done.Firstly, although theoreticallypossible, it would be a logistic

nightmare for Israel to launch a successfulattack on Tehran. According to some USexperts in the know of things, a successfuloperation by Israeli fighter aircrafts armedwith bombs would require refuelling stopsand use of air space of at least two Arab na-tions possibly Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

The Shia dominated government inBaghdad is unlikely to cooperate. Simi-larly, Saudi Arabia, despite its rivalry withTehran and its diplomatic and strategicproximity to Washington, cannot afford torisk such an adventure against another Is-lamic country.

The US with its large military presencein the region is quite capable of launchingan attack on Tehran. It has the requisitemilitary muscle in the form of bases inQatar and Central Asia and its aircraft car-riers are omnipresent in the Indian Ocean.Nevertheless, President Obama cannotrisk such an adventure in an election yearunless dragged into it by Israel.

For starters, it could fail like it did inthe case of President Carter's botched res-cue operation to retrieve US hostages in1980 that cost him his re-election. even ifit succeeds, long queues at the petrolpumps and fuel prices shooting throughthe roof as a result of disrupted oil suppliescould cost Obama his re-election, not tospeak of the political consequences in analready radicalised Islamic world includ-ing Pakistan.

The only viable option is talking toTehran that the US in its present belliger-ent mood is loath to use. Tehran has of-fered to resume stalled nuclear talks with“P5 plus one” as soon as possible, accord-ing to a letter that the nation’s nuclear ne-gotiator has sent to the european Union.

A similar offer was made to PresidentGeorge W Bush that he spurned. The pres-ent offer made in the wake of Tehranopenly brandishing its enriched uraniumhas also been met with skepticism fromWashington.

To talk to Iran (rather than to bomb it)is the only sensible alternative. Hopefully,the West – with a little push from Russiaand China – will adopt this sensible ap-proach rather than exacerbate tensions inthe most volatile region of the world.

The Iranian President Mahmoud Ah-madinejad has offered to enhance tradewith Islamabad to $10 billion. This is alsoeasier said than done. A sanction-riddenTehran can offer deals through currencyswaps that have limitations for Pakistan al-ready strapped for hard currency. BothPresident Zardari and Prime Minister Gi-lani have pledged to complete the megaIran-Pakistan gas pipeline by 2014 and

have expressed interest in buying electric-ity from Iran.

Closer economic relations with Tehranare a win-win for Islamabad. But does ithave the gall to defy US sanctions onTehran? India has refused to budge and re-mains the biggest customer of Iranian oil.President Zardari on the conclusion of thetrilateral summit has vowed to resist anypressure on the pipeline deal. Let us seehow the chips fall.

Hamid Karzai has pressed Islamabadto resume NATO supplies. He is playingthe role of a mediator to mend badlyfrayed relations between Islamabad andWashington that have been on a continu-ous decline since the Salala incident thatresulted in the death of 24 Pakistani mili-tary men. Despite admitting its culpability,the US till now has refused to apologize forthe incident.

In return, Islamabad has downgradedits relations with Washington. Many highlevel officials’ visits have been put on holdand visitors like the CeNTCOM com-mander General James N Mattis andWashington’s chief envoy for Afghanistanand Pakistan Marc Grossman have repeat-edly taken a rain-check.

A former US envoy and a specialist onthe region told me that Washington hascome to the end of its tether so far as its re-lations with Islamabad are concerned.Harbouring Al-Qaeda and Taliban in itsbadlands, Islamabad is increasingly seenby the US as the enfant terrible in the re-gion.

Islamabad on the other hand by shift-ing the responsibility to the national secu-rity committee of the parliament has putthe entire matter on an indefinite hold.Meanwhile, Washington, perfectly behav-ing like an arrogant superpower payingmuch more for its disrupted NATO sup-plies, is simply not willing to apologize.

Pakistan visibly cosying up to Tehranby upgrading its economic and politicalties will not be seen kindly by Washington.President Zardari’s categorical statementthat Pakistan will oppose any possible ag-gression against Iran and would not lendits bases for the purpose will further alien-ate Washington.

These are tough times for a region inturmoil. Afghanistan is increasingly be-coming a quagmire for Washington. Itwants to cut and run by 2014. Comingunder increasing pressure from an in-creasing belligerent US, all the stakehold-ers at the summit face tough and difficultchoices.

The writer is Editor, Pakistan Today

Three’s not a crowd

whiteLIeSBy ess Aich

For feedback, comments, suggestions and, most importantly, tips, contact us at whitelies@pakistantoday.com.pk

Word hasit thatt h e

PML(N) selectioncommittee forthe Senate hasmade an interest-ing decision. Ithas selected twoof its own mem-bers for the Sen-ate.

Apparently,the two luckywinners areKamran Michaeland NuzhatSadiq. Being firmbelievers in thesaying “Doctor,heal thyself”, theyhad absolutely noproblem with theformula “Selec-tor, select thy-self”.

By Arif Nizami

We hear that all who considerthemselves close to theirparty leaders have a one-item

agenda these days. That is a Senateticket, nothing less.

Not surprisingly the ex-DG FIAwho along with his two sons is consid-ered a trusted lieutenant of the man onthe hill had his expectations. However,we are told his dreams have been shat-

tered to bits. Both he and son Dr Basithave been denied Senate tickets whichhas set the tongues wagging. Appar-ently, he is not as close to the boss as heused to be.

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comment 13Saturday, 18 February, 2012

PTI Chief Imran Khanhas challenged the20th Amendment ig-

noring that it was passedunanimously by lawmakersbelonging to no less thannine parliamentary parties,Fata MNAs and over a dozenindependent legislators.Imran has declared theAmendment a law manipu-lated by and beneficial to thePPP and PML(N). Accordingto him, “nobody” would ac-cept the ‘PPP-PML(N) agree-ment.’ It is interesting thathe is simultaneously seekingan alliance with the MQMwhich is one of the promi-nent signatories to theAmendment

Imran has made it clearthat his opposition to theAmendment would not bepassive. After throwing downthe gauntlet, the knight er-rant is looking for a bloodyfight. People, he says, arewaiting for change throughelections. According to him,there would be bloodshed ifthe elections are rigged. Peo-ple will forget 1977, he toldmedia reporters. Translatedinto simple language, if thePTI doesn’t get the upperhand in the elections, itwould go for upsetting theapple cart even if it leads to amilitary takeover as hap-pened in 1977.

The rhetoric is not unex-pected. There are powers inthis country which do nowant to see strong demo-cratic institutions capable ofrunning the system effi-ciently. Topmost amongthese are the conventionalpowerbrokers who feelthreatened in the presence ofindependent institutions.They can better deal with a

parliament whose legitimacyremains doubtful than withone accepted widely as gen-uine. They are still finding itdifficult to cope with an in-dependent Supreme Court.That the three amendmentsin the constitutions havebeen enacted unanimouslysends a highly unwelcomemessage of the politiciansdeveloping the capacity forconsensus building.

Militant groups includ-ing the Jamaat-ud-Daawawho are ideologically op-posed to democracy toowould be alarmed at a sys-tem that makes the electionsboth credible and peaceful.They too would oppose theamendment even when theydo not take part in elections.

The 20th Amendment ismeant to remove the twoloopholes in the system thathave in the past addedweight to the challenges tothe credibility of the elec-tions posed by the losingparties a well as by interna-tional observers. They haveeither blamed the caretakersetup created to oversee theelections as partial or haveaccused the election Com-mission of collusion with theparty declared winner. Thefact that the parliament hadlittle to do with the appoint-ment of the caretaker setupand the president who ap-pointed the new electionCommision could easilynominate cronies made thesystem prone to manipula-tion.

The formula proposed inthe 20th Amendment re-moves the paramount role ofthe ruling party in the ap-pointment of both the elec-tion Commission and thecaretaker setup. Appoint-ment of the Chief electionCommissioner and the fourprovincial members of theeC is now to take placethrough a consensus be-tween the prime ministerand the leader of the opposi-tion. enjoying a constitu-tional tenure of five years,the members of the Commis-sion would no more be underthe government’s influence.

The caretaker setup toowould not be pliable as itwould be nominated by aparliamentary committeehaving equal representationfrom the treasury and oppo-sition benches. In case of dis-agreement between them,the interim setup would benominated by the electionCommission.

According to the consti-tution, law making remainsunder the exclusive jurisdic-tion of the parliament. Thebasic law lays down a proce-dure for the enactment ofconstitutional amendments,excluding players outside theparliament from the process.The 20th Amendment there-fore has been carried outstrictly in accordance withthe constitution and cannotbe challenged at any forum.

This said, the waydemocracies function is con-stantly undergoing improve-ments. The driving trend isto make democracy more in-clusive, consensus based andresponsive to citizens. Itwould have been in sync withthe spirit of the times if in-puts had also been soughtfrom the parties outside theparliament believing in elec-tions as a vehicle for change,Imran’s PTI being one.Among other things, thiswould have added to thecredibility of the new systemaimed at ensuring fair elec-tions.

It is unfortunate that thiswas not done. However oneexpects Imran Khan to ac-cept the 20th Amendmentwith good grace. He canbring further improvementsin the system when his partycomes to power. Any re-course to violence over anoutcome of the elections notunexpected by him wouldcause social turmoil thecountry can ill afford. Whatis more it would provide ahandle to the offstage playersto overthrow the system andpush the country back to dic-tatorship.

The writer is a formeracademic and a politicalanalyst.

The word governance in Pakistan has becomesynonymous with everything degenerate.While the hapless people are pounded with

grandiose proclamations of stands taken to defendthe honour and integrity of the country, under-hand deals are being continually struck with thevery same powers that are the target of multiplepublic pronouncements.

The confession did not come from the primeminister or any of his voluble ministers. It did notcome from any government official privy to thematter. It also did not come from any politicalleader from either side of the divide. It is the USambassador to Pakistan who disclosed that, duringthe time the NATO supply route has been blockedas a consequence of the Salala check-post attack,the air route has remained open and operational.Ahmad Mukhtar, the defence minister, while ac-knowledging the veracity of the statement con-tended that the air route had been allowed “onhumanitarian grounds to carry food items toAfghanistan which would rot if their carriage weredelayed”. I acknowledge my inability to put inwords my instinctive response to this queer logic.

This is not the only duplicity that the govern-ment has been guilty of in recent times. It has alsobeen reported that the prime minister, during a re-cent visit to Qatar, met the CIA chief General DavidPetraeus and sought his help in the government’sstandoff with the army over the memo controversy.The revelations come at a time when, according toreports emanating from multiple sources including

the prime minister, various ministers, theforeign office and the US State Depart-ment, Pakistan is going through a compre-hensive review of its relations with the USin an effort to re-formulate them in con-formity with Pakistan’s strategic interestsand objectives. In the midst of these dam-aging revelations, how would Pakistanlook and what are the prospects for it togenuinely re-evaluate its relations withthe US – an exercise that it has been pur-suing for over a couple of months nowwith no emerging signs of a result yet?

There is more to this sordid tale.While Pakistan is apparently boggeddown in this meaningless endeavour, theUS Foreign Affairs Sub-committee onOversight and Investigation, in an un-usual and aggressive move pregnant withfar-reaching repercussions, discussed thesituation in Balochistan and accused thePakistani government of broad humanrights abuses against the Baloch. Con-gressman Dana Rohrabacher who chairedthe hearing had earlier drafted a policypaper condemning the Obama adminis-tration and urging the US to pursue an in-dependent Baloch state ‘carved out ofPakistan’ to defeat the Taliban. During thecourse of presentations, Pakistan wasdubbed as a state that supported terror-ism and there were calls to apply LeahyAmendment without waivers to all Pak-istani units in Balochistan. (Leahy pro-

hibits US assistance to foreign military units thatviolate human rights with impunity.) This hearingcomes in the wake of reports that the gulf betweenthe Pakistani civil and military leaderships waswidening over the issue of Balochistan with themilitary leadership blaming the civilian govern-ment for its blunders that had complicated theproblem of the restive province. It also blamed for-eign intervention from various quarters, includingIndia, as the cause that has further aggravated theproblem.

In a related development, the US ambassadorin Pakistan has termed the human rights violationsin Balochistan as a major issue that needed to beaddressed urgently. He emphasised that it was anissue that should be discussed openly and tackledseriously. He, however, contended that there wasnothing sinister in the discussion before the USForeign Affairs Sub-committee. The US ambassa-dor further said that the possible change of com-mand in the ISI could impact the ongoingintelligence cooperation between the two coun-tries.

The drone strikes, after a short lull, have com-menced again eliciting silence from the authorities.While people are being generally fed with lollipopsof honour and integrity, the clandestine and con-tentious cooperation with the US to further theirinterests in the region (in lieu of the NRO) contin-ues unabated. The May 2 attack near Abbottabadand the memo case designed to undermine theworking of the military and the premier intelli-gence agency and facilitate the US boots on Pak-istani soil are two of the most recent manifestationsof the government’s complicity with the US in com-promising Pakistan’s strategic interests and toweaken the state and its institutions.

The reports regarding the US pressure on Man-soor Ijaz not to come to Pakistan to testify beforethe SC-appointed Commission investigating thememo affair lend further credence to the under-standing between the two governments to accom-plish the mutually agreed broad objectives. In theface of dubious intentions being crudely and bla-tantly flaunted, how can the legitimate state inter-ests of Pakistan be secured? With a judiciary thatappears woefully over-extended, a military boggeddown in fighting a US-imposed war and with gov-ernance having been abdicated at the altar of cor-ruption and cronyism, there is little left by way ofa strategy, structure or mechanism to arrest thesteep fall that Pakistan has been jettisoned into.

One got a whiff of the gruesome manifestationsof this decline in the treatment meted out to Waja-hat Khan post his interview of a jihad celebrity. Heand his family were threatened in no uncertainterms of dire consequences if he dared continue hisapproach. With a government busy digging in itstentacles and a complicit opposition securing itspound of flesh, the symptoms of anarchy and emer-gence of tiny fiefdoms and criminal mafias canhardly be countered.

The writer is a political analyst and a memberof the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. He can bereached at raoofhasan@hotmail.com

The decline is steep and remedies extinctApparently, a unanimous vote is not good enough

imran cries foul The villainous cover-ups

candid cornerBy Raoof Hasan

By Aziz-ud-Din Ahmad

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14 Saturday, 18 February, 2012

In lImelIght

1. LoS AngeLeS: Paul Rudd, Kathryn Hahn and

Jennifer Aniston arrive for the premiere of

‘wanderlust’.

2. PArIS: Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt at the

premiere of her film ‘In the Land of Blood and

Honey’.

3. BeRLIN: Keanu Reeves attends the 10th Berlinale

Talent Campus during the Berlinale.

4. FRANCe: A man works on a sculpture made with

oranges and lemons representing the eiffel tower

ahead of the start of the 79th edition of the Lemon

Carnival, the theme for which is ‘French regions’.

COURTESY MSN

Pakistani’s artistes in India, be it SalmaAgha in the 1980s or Zeba Bakhtiar in the90s, or Meera, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan andnow Veena Malik in present times, havealways been controversy’s most belovedchildren. But now with the latest entryinto the convent of controversies VeenaMalik pulling out all stops, the future ofPakistani artistes in India seems seriouslyjeopardised. With ‘Veena Malik’sSwayamvar’ now on hold, the most imme-diate casualty of the damage suffered inthe Indo-Pak cultural ties is a big newmusic contest show ‘Sur Kshetra’ helmedby the maverick music producer GajendraSingh. Apparently the show’s planned tobring a number of very prominent Pak-istani musicians to India has gone for atoss, post Veena’s multiple controversies.Says a source close to the ambitious show:“‘Sur Kshetra’ producer Gajendra Singhwas all set to bring a number of Pakistani

stalwarts to India for the show. Atif Aslamdid come down to India for a brief visit.There were plans to get several otherartists of the Pakistani-Bangladeshi musicindustry, among them Runa Laila, AbidaParveen and Ghulam Ali, down to Indiafor the show.” These plans have hastilybeen dropped. The show would now berecorded completely in the no-man’s landof Dubai. According to earlier plans thevenue for the show was both India andDubai with musicians from both Pakistanand India involved in a free-flowingstream of merging talent. But now bring-ing a large cartel of Pakistani musiciansinto Mumbai seems, in the words of asource from the show, ‘suicidal’. Whencontacted Gajendra Singh said: “Yes, theshow is going to be recorded exclusively inDubai. Some Pakistani artistes who cometo India for short-term publicity damageand negate the humble effort I’ve beenmaking for the last three decades to bettercultural ties between the two countriesthrough music. I don’t believe there’s abetter tool than songs to bring India andPakistan together. But every time a con-troversy like the one with Ustad Fateh AliKhan or Veena Malik happens, we moveback many steps. There are good times forIndo-Pak relations. And there are badtimes. I’d say we’re currently at a low ebbin our relations with our neighbours. Andsome of their artistes who are coming towork in Mumbai, are not helping thecause.” While Gajendra Singh goes mumon the issue after the above outburst asource close to him reveals that procuringvisas for Pakistani artistes had gotteneven more difficult in the past few weeks.Says the source: “Non-controversialartists like Ali Zafar and Atif Aslam areembarrassed by the antics of their col-leagues from their country. But there’s lit-tle they can do except look the other way.”One of the most prominent musiciansfrom Pakistan admitted on the assuranceof anonymity that he is ‘appalled’ at theconduct of some Pakistani artistes. “Humyahan pe mehmaan banke aate hain.Thoda to halaat ke nazaakat ki izzatrakhni chahiye,” said the singer.

Nadia Hussain launches her latestsummer lawn collection 2012

NEWS DESK

Fashion model Nadia Hussain has introduced her Latest Summer Lawn Collection2012. She held a marvellous exhibition of her latest summer lawn prints 2012 thatreceived an overwhelming response from the ladies. The collection contained abeautiful blend of sharp and soft hues and fascinating patterns that attracted largecrowd of women to the exhibition. Nadia Hussain Latest Summer Lawn Collection 2012was an instant hit as each piece got sold and the collection went out of stock.

Pakistani artists notwelcome in India

Dippy’s demandsMUMBAI: She opted out of the film and left her pro-

ducer fuming. She had to face her co-stars’ ire at a re-

cent party. And after going through all the trouble,

Deepika Padukone has finally decided to get back on

board for Ramesh Taurani’s ‘Race 2’. However, the ac-

tress has her set of ‘conditions’. After meeting pro-

ducer Taurani yesterday, Deepika realised that it

wouldn’t be in her best interest to contest the film-

maker on monetary grounds. The damages that Tau-

rani claimed he would ask from the actress might be

too high for Dippy, said the source. “Deepika has five

points of concern. If the producers of ‘Race 2’ are in-

terested in having her back on board, they will have

to look into the conditions,” said a friend of the ac-

tress. Dates can’t change: Deepika, who will be busy

with her other projects Rajinikanth’s ‘Kochadaiyaan’

and Ranbir Kapoor starrer ‘Jawaani Diwani’, will not

allot fresh dates to ‘Race 2’. Direct communication:

She has requested the producer Ramesh Taurani and

directors Abbas-Mustan to not work with middlemen.

No interference in personal care: Deepika will only

work with her chosen set of designers, hair stylist

and makeup artist. Right to decide release date: The

actress wants the filmmakers to consult her for the

release of ‘Race 2’. This is because she wants no mis-

understandings during the promotional phase of the

film. Information on overseas shoot: In case of a for-

eign schedule, the actress wants to be informed a

month in advance. AgencIeS

MUMBAI: Looks like the ghosts of SRK-Shirish slap episode are still haunting King Khan. The actor took a dig at

Farah Khan at a recent product event. “SRK chatted with the finalists and was dancing with them to music

generated by a software system. But the songs got stuck due to some technical glitches in the system. The

dance was being interrupted due to the breaking sound system,” said an eyewitness. Known for taking jibes at

his co-actors like Salman Khan and Aamir Khan, the actor decided to target Farah Khan this time. “SRK who was

irritated with the system error said, ‘Play station ko lag raha hai ki Farah iske samne dance kar rahi hai, isliye yeh

bar bar pause ho jaa raha hai (The Play station feels perhaps that Farah is dancing to its music and that’s why it’s

throwing up errors).’ In fact, the organisers had to finally stop the system and the music,” added the eyewitness.

SRK’s funny ways is not a new phenomenon for

sure. In the past, the actor has openly taken digs

at Aamir Khan at chat shows and award functions.

On Karan Johar’s chat show, for instance, when

KJo asked him what he would say to a die-hard

Aamir Khan fan, SRK had replied, “Guys, find an

icon you can look up to.” On the same show, when

he was asked the same question about Salman,

SRK, had said, “May God bless you.” The SRK-Farah

relationship has undergone a lot of ups and

downs. while their friendship was at its peak

during the making of ‘Om Shanti Om’, they fell off

after Farah signed Akshay Kumar for ‘Tees Maar

Khan’. Their friendship was soured after SRK

slapped her husband Shirish Kunder after a

drunken brawl. However, after the intervention of

friends, their friendship was restored. But are they

really friends? Only time will tell. AgencIeS

Post slapgate,SRK takes a dig at Farah

MUMBAI: even though, filmmaker Rajkumar Santoshi

had gallantly accepted the news of Aishwarya Rai’s

pregnancy, and wished her and Abhishek Bachchan

well, the filmmaker recently turned up at the

Bachchan household to ask for the signing amount

he had given to the couple for ‘Ladies and Gentle-

men’. Instead of sending a mail, the filmmaker made

a personal visit to the Bachchan residence to ask for

the money back. Abhishek and Aishwarya were given

Rs 25 laks when they had signed for Santoshi’s

‘Ladies and Gentleman’. Shortly after the film was

announced, Aishwarya announced that she was

pregnant. while Madhur Bhandarkar went all out

lashing Ash for hiding the news from him (remember

the ‘Heroine’ episode?), an understanding Santoshi

said, “The fact that Aishwarya and Abhishek are

going to be parents is far more important than my

film. The role will no longer suit her.” which is why

when a tabloid spotted the director coming out Jalsa

last week, several questions were raised. Sources

confirmed later that Santoshi had indeed gone to

‘Can I get mymoney back,Abhishek?’ asksSantoshi

14

2

3

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15

LOS ANGELES AgencIeS

TALK about girlpower! SelenaGomez, Katy Perry,Taylor Swift andLady Gaga top the

list of 2012 Kid’s Choice Awardsnominees, announced by Nick-elodeon. Selena and Katy leadthe pack with three nomina-tions each, (Taylor and Gagahave two) and on March 31, thefour girls will vie for a covetedblimp in the category ofFavourite Female Singer. ‘TheMuppets’ scored two chances towin for Favourite Movie andFavourite Movie Actress (AmyAdams). The ‘Twilight’ fran-chise is up for Favourite Bookand Favourite Movie Actress(Kristen Stewart). Tim Allenearned his first ever recognitionin the category of “favourite TVactor,” telling eT exclusively he

“could-n’t be more thrilled.” “It’s likegetting a phone call from an oldfriend. To be recognised by kidsis a huge thing. To be recog-nised by your own kids is nearlyimpossible!” ‘Harry Potter’ con-tinues its legacy, scoring four

nominations includingFavourite Movie, FavouriteMovie Actor for Daniel Rad-cliffe and Favourite Movie Ac-tress for emma Watson.Joining them in the movie cat-egory are a bunch of little bluecreatures otherwise known as‘The Smurfs’ with three nomi-nations (yes, Katy Perry got anom for her voice-over) and‘Kung Fu Panda’ also with threenoms. Oddly enough, JustinBieber and the man whobrought on Bieber Fever,Usher, are against each otherfor Favourite Male Singer.

‘American Idol’ grabs itseighth nomination for FavouriteReality Show up against ‘Amer-ica’s Funniest Home Videos’,‘America’s Got Talent’ and‘Wipeout’.

Will Smith will host theNickelodeon’s 2012 Kids’ ChoiceAwards to be handed out March31 in Los Angeles.

Jennifer Aniston

Getting star

on walk

of FameLOS ANGELES

AgencIeS

TV and film star JenniferAniston will be receivingthe honour of a lifetime onFebruary 22, as the actressis being honoured with astar on the Hollywood Walkof Fame. According to TheHollywood Reporter, TheHollywood Chamber ofCommerce is set to placeher distinction just outsideof the W Hollywood Hotel.The emmy and GoldenGlobe winner, perhaps bestknown for her 10 seasonson the hit show ‘Friends’,can next be seen on the bigscreen in the comedy‘Wanderlust’, openingFebruary 24.

LONDONcBS

The Duchess of Cambridge is gettingthe royal treatment at Madame Tus-sauds. The wax museum is set to unveilmodels of Kate infour of its locationsthis April, right be-fore her and PrinceWilliam’s first wed-ding anniversary.And, consideringthe interest in herwardrobe (whichoften leads to itemsshe wears sellingout), it’s only fittingthat each modelwill wear a differ-ent dress. The“Kate” at MadameTussaud’s NewYork location willdon the lavenderAlexander Mc-Queen gown she wore to the BAFTABrits to Watch in Los Angeles gala, arep for the museum said Thursday. Thedress was replicated with permissionfrom the design house, which also cre-ated the duchess’ wedding dress. InLondon, she’ll stand alongside PrinceWilliam in the blue Issa dress she wore

when the couple announced their en-gagement. In Amsterdam, the modelwill wear the black lace Alice Temper-ley dress Kate donned for the Londonpremiere of ‘War Horse.’ The locationin Blackpool, england, will unveil a

wax figure wearingthe Jenny Packhamgown she steppedout in for a Londoncharity dinner thatmarked her andWilliam’s first offi-cial engagement asa married couple.Britain’s royalfamily has a longhistory of beingimmortalised bythe wax museum,dating back towhen William IVwas monarch andthe first MadameTussauds openedin London in

1835. The royal couple is also beingimmortalised in plastic - at a muchsmaller size - to commemorate theirwedding anniversary. Mattel an-nounced this week that it will releaseWilliam and Kate dolls, dressed intheir wedding finery, in April tocommemorate the milestone.

Beyonce and Jay-Z headback to the studio

LOS ANGELES AgencIeS

They may be new parents, but Beyonce and Jay-Zaren’t taking much of a career break. Both are re-portedly working on new music. “The conversationsabout Beyonce’s next album literally just startedand there are two projects happening,” songwriterRyan Tedder said. “All I can say is that you kind offeed her the best that you have and she’s this phe-nomenal filter and takes it all in. She’s not inter-ested in 2012, she’s interested in what’s going tosound good for 2013. Without question she steersthe ship. With Beyonce you just let her go-she’sridiculous, she’s the best.” As for Jay-Z, fellow artistPharrell Williams told MTV that “we’re working onsomething, and it’s crazy.” Jay-Z’s upcoming projectwith Williams isn’t the first we’ve heard from himsince the birth of his daughter Blue Ivy Carter. Therapper recently released the song ‘Glory’.

New york penthousesells for $88 million

NEW YORKAgencIeS

A lavish New York penthouse withpanoramic views of Central Park hasbecome the most expensive apartmentever sold in the city. Russian fertilisermagnate Dmitry Rybolovlev - said to bethe world’s 93rd richest man - spent $88m(£56m) buying the Central Park Westpad.It is thought to be for his 22-year-olddaughter, ekaterina Rybolovleva. The6,744 sq ft (627 sq m) apartment was soldby American Sanford Weill, a former headof banking giant Citigroup. The penthouseboasts a custom-made oval bedroom, alibrary, gallery, chef’s kitchen and a 2,100sq ft (195 sq m) terrace running alongthree sides of the building. However, theapartment is not even thought to be themost expensive US property in MrRybolovlev’s portfolio. He is said to havepaid closer to $100m for an investmentproperty in Palm Beach, Florida in 2011.

UK spies cluelessabout Charlie Chaplin’sreal name

LONDON reUTerS

The real name and birthplace oflegendary silent-film star CharlieChaplin is shrouded in mystery, Britain’sdomestic spy agency concluded after aprobe into US claims he was acommunist sympathiser. Chaplin, one ofHollywood’s first and greatest starsfamed for his ‘Little Tramp’ character,believed he was born on April 16, 1889,in south London. British MI5 agentswere asked in 1952 to investigateChaplin’s background by the FBI, whichbelieved he was using an alias and thathis real name was Israel Thornstein. Anexhaustive search by MI5 found norecord of his birth anywhere, noranything to suggest he was any kind ofsecurity risk. During his long career,Chaplin courted controversy with overtlypolitical films such as ‘The GreatDictator’ a parody of German Nazi leaderAdolf Hitler and ‘A King in New York,’ asatire on the anti-communist Cold Warfears gripping America.

Katy, Gaga, Selena and Taylor

Top Kid’s Choice Noms

duchess Kate immortalised inwax - in four different dresses

their residence to ask for the signing

amount. Confirming that he has received his

Rs 50 lakh signing amount, Santoshi told

the tabloid, “But I will make a new film with

them, perhaps next year.” Meanhwile,

Bachchans were apparently not amused by

the entire episode, but being a thorough pro-

fessional, Abhishek immediately returned

the amount. Now the question is will Abhi-

Ash be interested to work with Santoshi

after this episode? ZeeneWS

For Vidya, Urdu literaturemeans gulzarMUMBAI: vidya Balan admits to be in com-

plete awe of Gulzar and says he is instrumen-

tal in introducing her to Urdu literature. “My

introduction to Urdu literature equals to

Gulzar saab. I watched him at the Kalaghoda

Festival a few years ago reading the ‘Karadi

Tales’. I was so taken in by what I saw and

what I heard that I began to take an interest

in Urdu literature too,” she said at the launch

of the album ‘Tera Bayaan Ghalib’ along with

Gulzar. “To me, there is just one person

(Gulzar) I am tongue-tied in front of. vishal

(Bharadwaj) so beautifully has called him the

‘Safed Sufi’,” the 33-year-old added. The

album consists of poet Ghalib’s letters and

poems recited by lyricist Gulzar and ghazals

in the voice of late Jagjit Singh. Talking about

Jagjit Singh, she said: “I think for everyone my

generation, ghazals means Jagjit Singh-ji and

Urdu literature means Gulzar saab. Ghalib

couldn’t have been brought to us by anyone

else but these two luminaries of Indian cul-

ture.” Gulzar had also produced a Tv serial,

‘Mirza Ghalib’ in 1988, which had Naseeruddin

Shah in the role of the poet. AgencIeS

meryl Streep,Julia Roberts team for filmversion of Broadway hitLoS AngeLeS: Back in October of 2010, the In-

ternet was abuzz with news that Meryl Streep

and Julia Roberts would join forces to bring ‘Au-

gust: Osage County’ to the big screen. Better

late than never! According to a press release,

Streep and Roberts will finally star in ‘August’

when production begins this fall. Based on the

Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning play by

Tracy Letts, ‘August: Osage County’ focuses on

an Oklahoma family that reunites after the mys-

terious death of the family patriarch. Streep is

set to play violet, the pill-addled matriarch of

the weston family, who constantly butts heads

with her eldest daughter, Barbara (Roberts).

“After seeing Meryl Streep’s mesmerising por-

trayal as Margaret Thatcher in ‘The Iron Lady’, it

has me even more excited and proud to co star

with her,” Roberts said in the press release. The

role of violet won Deanna Dunagan a Tony

Award, so should Streep not win an Oscar for

‘The Iron Lady’, at least she has her 18th nomi-

nation sewn up. AgencIeS

LoS AngeLeS:

Malin Akerman

arrives for the

premiere of

‘wanderlust’

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Saturday, 18 February, 2012

16 Foreign News

DAMASCUSAFP

THOUSANDS of Syrians ralliedFriday to demand Bashar al-Assad’s ouster, as the embattledpresident’s forces unleashedtheir heaviest pounding yet of

Homs in a brutal bid to crush dissent,monitors said.

The protesters emerged frommosques after the main weekly Muslimprayers, in line with a call by Internet-based activists for a rally for a “new phaseof popular resistance.” They turned outafter the UN General Assembly over-whelmingly backed an Arab League initia-tive calling on Assad to step aside, andahead of a visit by a Chinese envoy push-ing for peace. In the capital, one civiliandied and 12 were wounded, some criti-

cally, when they were fired on at a demon-stration in Mazze neighbourhood, said theSyrian Observatory for Human Rights.

At least 10,000 people demonstrated inthe southern town of Dael, in the provinceof Daraa, cradle of the revolt inspired by theArab Spring uprisings, said the Britain-based monitor. Other rallies were staged inthe towns of Jasem, Inkhel and Nimr al-Hara, where security forces wounded somedemonstrators when they opened fire onthem. In Homs, rockets crashed intostrongholds of resistance at the rate of foura minute, according to one opposition ac-tivist who added the city was facing a hu-manitarian crisis. “It’s the most violent in14 days. It’s unbelievable — extreme vio-lence the like of which we have never seenbefore,” said Hadi Abdullah of the GeneralCommission of the Syrian Revolution.

“There are thousands of people iso-

lated in Homs ... There are neighbour-hoods that we know nothing about. I my-self do not know if my parents are okay. Ihave had no news from them for 14 days,”he told AFP by phone. A tank fired into aresidential part of Homs before bursts ofmachinegun fire clattered across theneighbourhood, according to a video ac-tivists uploaded to YouTube.

“The regime troops are still shellingat the moment but are reluctant to enterBaba Amr. They are on the periphery andare moving slowly. The army will lose if itbegins urban warfare,” activist OmarShakir said later on Skype. Internationalrights groups have estimated that the as-sault on Homs has killed almost 400 peo-ple, and a medic reached on Skype said1,800 have been wounded.

“There are injuries that cannot betreated because of a lack of medical

equipment,” Dr Ali al-Hazzuri told AFP.“There are casualties who are close todying.” Nine bodies of unidentified peo-ple were found on Friday morning inHoms, said the Observatory, which alsoreported the heaviest shelling in the cityfor two weeks. The violence came afterthe UN General Assembly demanded onThursday an immediate halt to Syria’sbrutal crackdown on dissent, whichhuman rights groups say has cost morethan 6,000 lives in the past 11 months.

In a strongly worded resolutionadopted by a 137-12 vote, member statesdemanded Assad’s government stop at-tacking civilian demonstrators and startpulling troops back to barracks. The res-olution calls on Damascus “to stop all vi-olence or reprisals immediately, inaccordance with the League of ArabStates initiative.”

Greek cultureminister resignsover ancientOlympia theft

ATHENSAFP

Greek Culture Minister PavlosGeroulanos resigned Friday after maskedarmed robbers stole more than 60 ancientobjects of “incalculable” value, includinga gold ring, from a museum in Olympia.Sixty-eight objects were whisked from amuseum dedicated to the ancient OlympicGames after two masked menimmobilised the museum’s sole femaleguard as she arrived for her earlymorning shift, officials said. The policesaid “bronze and clay objects and a goldring” had been removed from displaycases at the museum, a former hotel builton a forested hilltop on the outskirts ofthe small town of Olympia. “There weretwo of them, and they had a gun,”Olympia Mayor Thymios Kotzias toldFlash Radio. “They immobilised the guardas the shift changed at 7am (0500 GMT),having previously knocked out thealarm,” he said. “We must wait and seewhat the local archaeology supervisor willsay, but the items were of incalculablevalue,” Kotzias said. He later told statetelevision NeT: “Clearly the museum’ssecurity was insufficient... to guard aglobal treasure.” A ministry unionist saidmuseums nationwide were over 1,500guards short of a full complement afterover two years of layoffs imposed by thegovernment in the entire public sector toaddress the country’s worst debt crisis indecades. “All museums have sufferedcuts, both in guards and archaeologists,the staff are no longer enough to operateat full shifts,” said Ioanna Frangou,general secretary of the union of short-term culture ministry staff. Thegovernment said Geroulanos hadsubmitted his resignation over theincident, but it had not been immediatelyaccepted by Prime Minister LucasPapademos. The minister rushed to themuseum, some 300 kilometres (186miles) southwest of Athens in thePeloponnese peninsula, the semi-stateAthens News Agency said. Olympia,birthplace of the ancient Olympic Games,is visited by hundreds of thousands ofvisitors annually.

China detainsTibetans backfrom India:rights group

BEIJINGAFP

China has detained large numbers of Ti-betans for political re-education after theyreturned from a visit to India to listen to re-ligious teachings, a leading rights groupsaid. The New York-based Human RightsWatch (HRW) quoted multiple sources assaying that since February 6, many re-cently-returned Tibetans had been detainedin ad hoc centres in Lhasa, capital of Tibet,and other areas. Beijing has launched ahuge clampdown on Tibetan-inhabited ar-eas of China following several bouts ofdeadly unrest, and ahead of the March an-niversary of the Tibetan spiritual leader theDalai Lama’s flight into exile. The groupsaid the exact number of detainees was notknown, but may run into the hundreds. It isalso unclear how long they will be held,but sources with knowledge of the deten-tions said they could last from 20 days tothree months. “This is the first known in-stance since the late 1970s in which theChinese authorities have detained laypeo-ple in Tibet in large numbers to force themto undergo re-education,” HRW said in astatement received Friday. The govern-ment and police of Tibet were not immedi-ately available for comment when con-tacted by AFP. Tibetans caught returningto China from Nepal or India without legaltravel documents usually face stiff penal-ties, but the detention of travellers withvalid passports is rare, the group said.

MOGADISHUAFP

Famine is over in war-torn Somaliabut the problems are not: HaweyoIbrahim survives on meagre food aidhandouts rather than return to hervillage, controlled by Shebab rebelswho killed her husband.

“Until the Shebab leave, I cannotgo back,” 40-year old Ibrahim said,queuing for food aid handouts in theanarchic Somali capital Mogadishu. “Icannot go back to where they murderedmy husband,” she added quietly.Ibrahim fled Somalia’s southern Bayregion a year ago, after Al-Qaeda alliedShebab fighters murdered her hus-band, because he “refused to be con-scripted” by the rebels to fight againstthe Western-backed government inMogadishu.

Already struggling to survive froman extreme drought — with faminezones later declared by the United Na-tions in July — she trekked into Mo-gadishu with her 10 children, alongwith some 185,000 others in desperatesearch of aid. Tens of thousands are be-lieved to have died during the famine,according to the United Nations.

Famine conditions were declared

over earlier this month, but one year onsince Ibrahim and her children — likeso many others — fled into Mogadishu,and despite massive international aidefforts, the conditions remain grim. Athird of Somalia’s population needemergency aid and the mortality ratesremain among the highest in the world,the UN warns.

At least 2.34 million people still

need support across Somalia, whileexperts fear hunger will grow in thelean period before the next harvest inthe conflict-ridden Horn of Africa na-tion. The Shebab insurgents thatkilled Ibrahim’s husband still controlmuch of south and central Somalia,despite a military surge by AfricanUnion troops and regional armiesagainst them.

Italian thieves

apologise for

bank robberyROME

AFP

Two robbers who broke intoa bank in Italy on Fridayapologised to employees,saying that they were forcedto steal because of the eco-nomic crisis before makingoff with 10,000 euros($13,000). “Stay calm and weare sorry for the inconven-ience but there is a crisis,”one of the balaclava-cladmen said during the robberyon a branch of Banca Montedei Paschi di Siena in Sar-dinia, ANSA news agency re-ported. Police officers saidthey believed a weapon usedin the hold-up was a fakesince it did not set off ametal detector at the en-trance to the bank. The rob-bers locked the employees ina room to make their escape.The Italian economy is in re-cession and a series of steepbudget cuts in recent monthsto avoid bankruptcy have leftmany Italians out of pocket.

HerAT: Afghan horsemen compete for a goat carcass during a game of Buzkashi on Friday. The ancient game of Buzkashi is an Afghan national sport which is played

between two teams of horsemen competing to throw a goat carcass into a scoring circle. AfP

famine is over, but Somaliastill struggles

Syrians rally against Assad, braving backlash

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Foreign News 17Saturday, 18 February, 2012

PARISAFP

BRITAIN’S Prime MinisterDavid Cameron on Fridaywished his “friend” Presi-dent Nicolas Sarkozy ofFrance well in his re-elec-

tion battle, dismissing recent disagree-ments about europe.

“We’ll be following your fortunesin the weeks to come on the campaigntrail and, as I said, I wish you luck,”Cameron told Sarkozy, as they gave ajoint news conference in Paris lessthan 10 weeks before the French poll.

Cameron’s backing of Sarkozy’scandidacy was the second informal en-dorsement from a major centre-rightleader in europe, after Germany’sChancellor Angela Merkel threw herweight behing him earlier this month.Asked if he would campaign onSarkozy’s behalf, Cameron joked thatit might not help convince the Frenchelectorate, but said the summit gavehim “a chance to wish my friend wellin the battle he has ahead.”

“I admire Nicolas Sarkozy’scourage and his leadership and I thinkhe has achieved great things for hiscountry. Clearly the furure is an issuefor the French people, but I makethose points, I believe those points.“I’m not quite sure if I made them onthe campaign trail they would have theeffect that my friend would want them

to have,” he said, as Sarkozy smiled.Sarkozy will seek a second five-

year mandate in the first round ofFrance’s presidential election on April22, but trails Socialist challenger Fran-cois Hollande in the opinion polls andfaces possible defeat. Cameron andSarkozy have clashed publicly overhow to handle the sovereign debt crisisin the eurozone and about the Franceleader’s plan for a financial transactiontax, which the British premier recentlybranded “madness”.

But both men are centre-rightconservatives opposed to Hollande’sattacks on financial markets and ontheir austerity programmes, and theybonded over joint military and diplo-matic initiatives in Libya and the Mid-dle east. “We do sometimes havedisagreements on european issues,”Cameron admitted, but insisted thatthe pair has “a relationship that is eas-ily strong enough to survive the oddbump or bounce when we sometimeshave a disagreement.”

BENGHAZIAFP

Libyans celebrated on Friday the first an-niversary of the uprising against MoamerGaddafi with fireworks and slogans, evenas their new leader vowed to act firmlyagainst further instability.

Hundreds gathered in Tahrir (Liber-ation) Square in Benghazi, the city whichfirst rose against Gaddafi and his 42-yearregime, after traditional Muslim prayers,waving Libya’s new flag and proclaimingthe revolution’s “birthday.” Libya’s rulers

have not organised official celebrations ata national level as a mark of respect forthe thousands of people killed in the con-flict that saw Gaddafi captured and slainon October 20. But spontaneous com-memorations began nationwide, as for-mer rebels, who toppled Gaddafi last yearwith NATO backing, set up fresh check-points in Tripoli, Benghazi, the westernport city of Misrata and other towns.

In Tahrir Square, mothers held pic-tures of their sons killed in the fighting,while singers and poets performed for thegrowing crowds. “This is the first birthday

of Libya. It is a day of freedom, a day toremember. The days ahead will be betternow that Gaddafi is gone,” said Malek LSahad, a Libyan-American rap singer whoreturned to his native country last year.

Around 200 people waved flags andchanted slogans against Syria’s PresidentBashar al-Assad, such as “Shame on youBashar!” and “It’s your time to go now!”

A ruthless crackdown by the Assadregime on similar anti-governmentprotests that erupted last March has costmore than 6,000 lives, human rightsgroups say. Post-Gaddafi Libya recog-

nises the Syrian National Council, thebroadest opposition group, as the repre-sentative of the Syrian people. Formerarmy colonel Idris Rashid, 50, said thedifference between the new Libya and theold was “like the difference between thesky and the earth.”

“We were living before, but neverknew the meaning of life. Today we canfeel the breeze of freedom,” he told AFP.One year after the uprising, Libya is bat-tling challenges ranging from how totame the rowdy militias that foughtGaddafi to establishing a new rule of law.

Murdoch visitsBritish tabloidstaff after arrests

LONDONAFP

Rupert Murdoch on Friday visited the officesof his British tabloid The Sun amidjournalists’ anger following the arrests of 10current and former staff over allegations ofbribing public officials. Murdoch swept intothe headquarters of his British newspaperdivision in Wapping, east London, in achauffeur-driven Range Rover to take chargeof the latest crisis in his media empire. The80-year-old tycoon flew in to Britain on aprivate jet late Thursday, seven months afterhe took the swift decision to shut down TheSun’s sister paper, the News of the World,amid a scandal over phone-hacking. Despitefears that Murdoch could also close The Sunto ‘protect the brand’ of his US-based NewsCorporation empire, he is expected to seekto reassure an angry newsroom that he iscommitted to publishing the tabloid. TheSun sells 2.5 million copies a day, making itthe biggest-selling title in a crowded Britishnewspaper market. Police arrested fivejournalists last weekend as well as a Ministryof Defence official, a member of the armedforces and a policeman over allegations thatreporters paid officials for information. Fourcurrent and former Sun employees were alsoarrested in January, and another inNovember. Journalists at the paper arefurious at the role of News Corp. in thearrests, which were sparked by informationpassed to police by a committee set up by thecompany in response to the phone-hackingfurore. The Management and StandardsCommittee (MSC), based at the Wappingheadquarters, has pored over thousands ofemails and documents. Tom Mockridge, thechief executive of Murdoch’s Britishnewspaper division, News International, hastold staff that the tycoon had personallyreassured him about his “total commitmentto continue to own and publish The Sun”.However, a former editor of another ofMurdoch’s British papers, The SundayTimes, warned that his ex-boss would do“whatever it takes” to protect the reputationof his empire in the face of concerns from USinvestors. “At the moment, it looks like he’sprepared to sacrifice the journalists andjournalism in London to do whatever it takesto be seen to be cleaning up his act so that itwill play better in the US,” Andrew Neil toldCNN. The National Union of Journalists(NUJ) said Sun employees had been incontact to discuss taking legal action againstthe paper’s owners. Meanwhile, Murdochsaid his News International company wouldlaunch a Sunday edition of The Sun tabloidin Britain, in an email to staff.

Thai police seeknew Iranianbomb suspect

BANGKOKAFP

Police in Thailand said Friday they werehunting for a fifth Iranian suspected in afailed bomb plot in Bangkok that has senttensions between Israel and Iran soaring.The tourist magnet has stepped up securityfollowing Tuesday’s blasts, the third bombincident to shake world capitals in less than24 hours. Tehran has denied Israelicharges it is waging a terror campaignagainst the Jewish state. Arrest warrantshave been issued for four Iranians, two ofwhom have been detained and chargedover the botched attack, which came tolight after an apparently unintendedexplosion at a Bangkok house on Tuesday.Now police are compiling evidence andwitness accounts to seek a warrant foranother suspect whose whereabouts areunknown. “The additional suspect is 52-year-old Iranian man Nikkhahfard Javadwho was seen leaving the house hoursbefore the blast,” said BangkokMetropolitan Police deputy commanderAnuchai Lekbumrung. According to Thaimedia, the man is suspected of being atrainer in bomb-making. Reports said theauthorities were also gathering informationon a potential sixth suspect seen visitingthe house previously. Thai police chiefPhrewphan Damapong has said thatIsraeli diplomats were the intended targetof the plot, but Tehran has rejectedaccusations that it is behind a terrorcampaign against the Jewish state. One ofthe suspects — named as 28-year-oldSaeid Moradi — had his legs blown off ashe hurled a bomb at Thai police whilefleeing. Another, Mohamad Khazaei, wasdetained trying to board a flight out of thecountry. Thailand is seeking theextradition of another Iranian arrested inMalaysia in connection with the blasts,while an Iranian woman who rented thehouse used by the suspects in Bangkok isthought to have fled the kingdom.

Iran, Hezbollah‘plotting new anti-Israeli attacks’

JERUSALEMAFP

Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia areplanning to carry out new anti-Israeli attacksaround the world, a senior Israeli officialinvolved in counter-terrorism warned onFriday. “Iran and Hezbollah are planning moreattacks overseas,” he told reporters, speakingon condition of anonymity and without givingfurther details. Israel has been on high alertfollowing bomb incidents in India, Thailandand Georgia on Monday and Tuesday thatofficials said were aimed at diplomats from theJewish state. Top Israeli officials have openlyaccused Iran of being responsible and havealso implicated Iran’s Lebanese Shiite allyHezbollah in several other foiled attempts toharm Israelis in Thailand and Azerbaijan sincethe start of the year. Thailand has arrested twoIranians in connection with a series of blasts inBangkok earlier this week, and police said theyare looking for an Iranian woman who isthought to have fled the kingdom. On Friday,police confirmed they were seeking anotherIranian in connection with the explosions. Afourth Iranian linked to the incident wasdetained in Malaysia.

ATHenS: A riot police officer kicks a protesting high school student in front of the parliament on Friday during a demonstration against austerity measures. AfP

Libya marks revoLution day

Cameron backs ‘friend’Sarkozy in French election

PArIS: French President nicolas Sarkozy shakes hands with British PrimeMinister David cameron during a press conference at the elysee Palace as partof a Franco-British summit on Friday. AfP

g Cameron’s backing of Sarkozy’s candidacy is the second informal endorsement from a

major centre-right leader in europe, after Germany’s Angela Merkel

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Page 21

Saturday, 18 February, 2012

Stosur reachesQatar semis

LONDONAFP

PAKISTAN internationalspinner Danish Kaneriawas named in court onFriday as being involvedin a spot-fixing scam that

led to the trial of a former englishcounty cricketer. Prosecutors in the caseof former essex bowler Mervyn West-field, who has pleaded guilty to spot-fix-ing and faces sentencing on Friday, saidthe player had been lured into the fixafter an approach by Kaneria.

The Old Bailey heard that Kaneriatold Westfield he would be paid to con-cede a certain number of runs in a par-ticular over. Prosecutor Nigel PetersQC said the deal emerged after anotheressex player, Tony Palladino, showedWestfield "the most money he had everseen". Kaneria was arrested in connec-tion with the case in 2010 but later re-leased without charge.

Westfield admits receiving £6,000($9,200) to bowl so that 12 runs wouldbe scored in the first over of a 40-overmatch between Durham and essex inSeptember 2009, although in fact only10 were scored. This case took place

against the backdrop of Pakistan play-ers Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif andMohammad Aamer being jailed inBritain last year for their role in a sepa-rate spot-fixing scandal in a Test matchagainst england. Kaneria's lawyerFarogh Naseem brushed aside West-field's claims. "I think we can only takeany step once the inquiry is finished,"Naseem told AFP in Karachi. "It isWestfield's words against Kaneria anda lot will depend on what evidences heputs before the court against my client."

Naseem reiterated that Kaneria hadbeen cleared by the police.

"At the time of the police inquiry,Kaneria was not charged and cleared.The ICC (International Cricket Council)cleared him so we feel that Kaneria wasdischarged in the case," he said.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB)withdrew Kaneria after he was selectedfor the series against South Africa in Oc-tober 2010 and has since not clearedhim for selection, apparently waiting forthe Westfield inquiry to be completed.

Kaneria's petition against the PCBto revive his career was dismissed bythe Sindh High court in November lastyear and despite vowing to take the caseto higher courts, Kaneria has not madeany progress. Kaneria was allowed toplay domestic cricket, however, and hasrepresented Sindh in the ongoing Pen-tangular Cup in Pakistan. "The PCB willwait for the final judgement in West-field's case," PCB lawyer Taffazul Rizvitold AFP. "If some solid evidences arebrought before the PCB, only then willwe take action. At the moment there isa status quo in Kaneria's case. "Kaneriawas not cleared by the integrity com-mittee, which is required for everyplayer to represent Pakistan."

Kaneria namedin spot-fixing case

SYDNEYAFP

Sri Lanka posted their biggest-everone-day international win overAustralia in Sydney on Friday witha crushing eight-wicket tri-seriesODI victory with 101 balls to spare.

Sri Lanka bounced back into fi-nals contention with a bonus-pointvictory on the Duckworth-Lewismethod after skittling out Australiafor 158 off 40.5 overs and rattlingup a revised winning target of 152for two in just 24.1 overs. It was SriLanka's largest ODI win over Aus-tralia in terms of balls remaining.

The Sri Lankans, who were win-less before Friday's game afterbeing held to a tie in their previousmatch by leaders India, moved towithin three points of the Indiansafter four games in the tournament.Skipper Mahela Jayawardenesteered his side to victory with anunbeaten knock of 61 off 67 ballswith opener Tillakaratne Dilshanhitting 45 off 41.

"The intent was good, the ag-gression, the tempo... it was a good,clinical finish," Jayawardene said."The bonus point was brilliant, wejust wanted a win, but now we'redefinitely back in it. The bonus

point was the icing on the cake."Kumar Sangakkara reached 10,000career ODI runs in his innings of 30off 29 balls.

Thisara Perera was judgedman-of-the-match in a wide openvote having taken two for 29 andalso effected two run outs in Aus-tralia's innings. It was Australia'sfifth-biggest loss in one-day cricketin terms of balls remaining. It wasalso Australia's second straight de-feat in the tournament and theyface India in Brisbane on Sunday,when they will again be led by RickyPonting in the continued absence ofinjured skipper Michael Clarke.

"A really poor day with bat, balland in the field," Ponting said. "Nodoubt we'll have a chat about it as agroup, but the bottom line is we'regoing to have to move on prettyquick. "Full credit to Sri Lanka, theybowled and fielded really well, andplayed their shots in the chase.

"We thought we could use theseam of the ball and capitalise, butthat wasn't the case. Hopefully Sun-day is better than tonight."

Of the Australians, only ClintMcKay (1-23 off six overs) enjoyeda good night with the ball whileBrett Lee, on his return 16 daysafter fracturing his toe, finished

with one for 42 off seven overs.Sri Lanka set up their emphatic

victory by dismissing Australia for158 off 40.5 overs in the match,which was reduced to 41 overs-a-side by afternoon rain. It was Aus-tralia's lowest ODI total at theSydney Cricket Ground since 1997and fourth-lowest in all ODIs inSydney. David Hussey rescued Aus-tralia from an even lower scoreafter the home side had tottered at88 for six before a two-hour raindelay. He hit a determined 58 off 64balls for his third half-century ofthe tournament after being droppedon eight and 31.

David Warner went for 13 beingdeceived by a slower ball from La-sith Malinga and hitting straight toFarveez Maharoof at mid-on.

Ponting's run of single-figurescores in the series continued whenhe was caught and bowled by Maha-roof for two. Michael Hussey (13),brought in for Clarke, clouted ahuge six off Angelo Mathews butwas caught behind off the next balland Peter Forrest followed shortlyafterwards for 16 to leave Australia74 for five. All-rounder Maharoof,brought in for spinner SachithraSenanayake, claimed two for 18 offeight overs.

Sri Lanka crush Australia in rain-hit one-dayer

AUSTrALIA:

D. Warner c Maharoof b Malinga 13

M. Wade run out (Perera) 15

r. Ponting c and b Maharoof 2

P. Forrest c Mathews b Maharoof 16

M. Hussey c Sangakkara b Mathews 13

D. Hussey c Thirimanne b Perera 58

D. christian lbw b Perera 6

c. McKay lbw b Herath 3

B. Lee run out (Perera) 0

M. Starc run out (Kulasekara) 17

X. Doherty not out 2

eXTrAS (lb2, w11) 13

ToTAL (all out; 40.5 overs) 158

Fall of wickets: 1-21 (Warner), 2-37 (Ponting), 3-37

(Wade), 4-60 (M. Hussey), 5-74 (Forrest), 6-81

(christian), 7-95 (McKay), 8-104 (Lee), 9-153 (D.

Hussey), 10-158 (Starc)

BoWLIng: Malinga 8.5-0-42-1 (2w/10), Kulasekara 8-

1-29-0, Maharoof 8-1-18-2, Mathews 4-0-26-1, Perera

7-1-29-2, Herath 5-1-12-1 (1w)

SrI LAnKA:

M. Jayawardene not out 61

T. Dilshan c D. Hussey b McKay 45

K. Sangakkara c Doherty b Lee 30

L. chandimal not out 6

eXTrAS (lb5, w5) 10

ToTAL (2 wickets for; 24.1 overs) 152

Fall of wickets: 1-74 (Dilshan), 2-133 (Sangakkara)

BoWLIng: Lee 7-0-42-1 (2w), Starc 4-0-32-0 (1w),

McKay 6-1-23-1 (1w), christian 5.1-0-32-0 (1w),

Doherty 2-0-18-0

Sri Lanka won by 8 wickets (Duckworth/Lewis), Man-

of-the-match: Thisara Perera (SrI), Toss: Australia,

Umpires: Billy Bowden (nZL), Simon Fry (AUS), TV

umpire: Bruce oxenford (AUS), Match referee: Andy

Pycroft (ZIM).

STAnDIngS

(games, wins, losses, tied, points):

India: 4, 2, 1, 1, 10

Australia: 4, 2, 2, 0, 9

Sri Lanka: 4, 1, 2, 1, 7

ScoreBoArD

SyDNey: Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene (L) congratulates histeammate Kumar Sangakkara (R) after he had reached the milestone of10,000 runs during the One-day International match against Australia. AfP

Cook showing pathto success: Pietersen

DUBAIAFP

Senior batsman Kevin Pietersen on Fri-day praised one-day captain AlastairCook for the successive one-day hundredsthat gave england an unassailable 2-0lead against Pakistan in their four-matchseries. Cook hit 137 and 102 in the twowins in Abu Dhabi and england will lookto wrap up the series in the last twomatches here on Saturday and Tuesday.Pietersen said it was a good turnaroundafter losing the preceding Test series 3-0."It's been a really good turnaround afterthe Test matches," said Pietersen, whoflopped in the Tests with just 67 runs."The team have done really well. Cookand Ravi (Bopara) have done a brilliantjob, and (Steven) Finn has been remark-able." Paceman Finn finished with identi-cal figures of 4-34 in both games to giveengland wins by 130 and 20 runs respec-tively. Pietersen said Cook had stood upto the mark since being made captain lastyear. "Cooky's such a good player, who isfulfilling his role in the team really, reallywell. You can't complain when you gettwo hundreds in successive games." Onhis own form, Pietersen said he was try-ing his best to score with the help ofcoach Andy Flower after being used asopener in the one-dayers. "Andy's a greatbeliever, and the team realise, that notevery single person in the team is alwaysgoing to be on form -- and a few of ushaven't been in the best nick," Pietersensaid. "But dovetailing is a word Andy hasused a lot over the last few years, sincehe's come into the job, and you need that.That's why we've done so well."

LAHORESTAFF rePorT

Pakistan forward Rehan Butt has on Friday won backplace in the national team for the 2012 LondonOlympics camp training beginning from February27 here at the National Hockey Stadium. Rehan notonly earned place in the camp probables but wasalso awarded central contract in Category A. Rehan,for whom the federation had set aside its rule of notselecting players over the age of 30 for the nationalchampionship, impressed the selectorsby scoring 10 goals and help-ing his side Wapda qualifyfor the final of the event,which they lost to PIA.“Yes, he has played well sohe deserves a place in thesquad,” chief selector Hanif

Khan reported to have said. The 32-year-old was neithera part of the national camp nor the team but was allowedto play in the national championship. “But the federationmade an exception for Rehan, citing that the selectors

wanted to ascertain his form and fitness.” ThePHF on the recommendations of National Se-lection Committee, approved performancebase ‘central contract’ to the players of na-tional pool. “This incentive programme will beapplicable to the players from January 1 toMarch 31. The PHF has already paid amount

of central contract to the players upto December 31,” said an official

of the federation. The firsttraining camp national sen-ior probables preparing for

participation in the LondonOlympiad will be established at

National Hockey Stadium La-

hore from 27th February to 15th March 2012. The PHFhas directed following probable players to reportKhawaja Muhammad Junaid, Camp Commandant onFebruary 27 afternoon. cATegorY A: Sohail Abbas, Fareed Ahmed, Rashid Mahmood, ShakeelAbbasi , waqas Sharif & Rehan Butt.cATegorY B: Imran Shah, Muhammad Irfan, Rizwan Senior, AbdulHaseem Khan, Shafqat Rasool.cATegorY c: Kashif Shah, M. Tousiq, Muhammad Zubair, Ali Shan,Rizwan Junior & Umar Bhutta.JUnIorS: Mazhar Abbas, Kashif Javed, Tasawwar Abbas, MuhammadIrfan, Ammad Butt and Muhammad Suleman.PreLIMInArY SqUAD: Goalkeepers:Imran Butt, Imran Shah, Mazhar Abbas.FULL-BAcKS: Sohail Abbas, Kashif Shah, Ihsan Ullah, Muhammad Irfan,Amir Shahzad.HALFBAcKS: Rizwan Junior, Fareed Ahmad, Rashid Mehmood, M. Tou-siq, Kashif Javed, Tasawwar Abbas & Ammad Butt.ForWArDS: waqas Sharif, Shakeel Abbasi, Abdul Haseem Khan,Muhammad Rizwan Senior, Muhammad Zubair, Ali Shan, Shafqat Ra-sool, Muhamamd Umar Bhutta, Shabbir Khan, Muhammad Irfan Junior,Muhammad Suleman, Rehan Butt.

Rehan back in contention for Pakistan

Sri Lanka ordersbank to payplayer wages

COLOMBOAFP

Sri Lanka'ssports ministerhas orderedthe state-runBank of Ceylonto settle thewages of na-tional crick-eters who havenot been paidfor over a year, a statement said on Fri-day. After several rounds of discussionsbetween minister MahindanandaAluthgamage, the bank and the cricketboard, the Bank of Ceylon has agreed torelease 600 million rupees ($5 million)to pay the dues. "Minister Aluthgamagealso instructed the officials of Sri LankaCricket not to overlook contract pay-ments in the future," the statement said.Sri Lanka's cricket board has not paidits players as the governing body strug-gles with debts of $69 million afterbuilding two new venues and revampinga third ground for the World Cup. Sincelosing the 2011 World Cup final to India,Sri Lanka have lost Test and one-day se-ries against england, Australia, Pakistanand South Africa.

PDF E-Paper ISB_Layout 1 2/18/2012 3:03 AM Page 18

sports 19Saturday, 18 February, 2012

DUBAIAFP

MISBAH-UL Haq hascalled for his batsmento put up a strongerfight to change Pak-istan's fortunes in the

third one-day match against englandthat starts on Saturday. Pakistan failedto chase down targets of 261 and 251 inthe first two one-day matches to handengland an unbeatable 2-0 lead in thefour-match series. "We have to really im-prove our batting," the Pakistan captainsaid on Friday. "In the Tests and one-dayers both the teams were struggling intheir batting and most of the time it wasthe bowling that was saving both."

Pakistan won the preceding three-Test series 3-0 but now face their first

one-day defeats in seven series.Misbah refused to single out any in-

dividual for blame and said everyonehad to take shoulder responsibility."even in the Sri Lankan series ourlower middle order was not con-tributing," he said of his team's4-1 win in November lastyear. Saturday's match seesthe return of former captainShoaib Malik, who was dropped forthe second game, with Pakistanlooking to add more bowling optionsas well as a strengthened battingline-up, Misbah added. eng-land have performed wellin the one-day seriesand Misbah said thatimprovement wasvital to avoid anotherdefeat. Misbah said

the players also needed to master theweather conditions in the United Arab

emirates, where Pak-istan currently play"home" fixtures dueto the uncertain se-curity situation athome. Two newballs and day-nightmatches make the

ball move

more in the air and skid off the pitch inthe evening, he added.

"Sometimes it is difficult as an Asianteam batting second to chase," he ex-plained. "As professionals we have to dis-cover that and we have to overcome that."Other setbacks include having to play witha stand-in wicketkeeper in Umar Akmal,who dropped Alastair Cook on 28 in thesecond match. Cook went on to hit his sec-ond successive hundred. "It is really a dif-ficult decision for us to keep a talentedkeeeper Adnan Akmal out of the side.Again it is due to the pressure on our bat-ting line up. It is not clicking. So that is

troubling us at the moment." The fourthmatch in the series will be played onTuesday. Both teams will also play

three Twenty20 internationals inDubai (February 23 and 25) and in

Abu Dhabi (February 27).

Misbah wants batsmen tochange Pakistan fortunes

After winning the first two matches ofthe series, england will take on Pak-istan in the third match of the four-match ODI series at DubaiInternational Stadium on Saturday(February 18). This will be the 71stmatch between the two teams in lim-ited overs cricket and first at thisground. england have won 40 andlost 28 in 70 previous encounters be-tween the two sides. Two matchesended without a result.

england also have a good recordagainst Pakistan in the matchesplayed at the UAe. They have wonfive and lost two in the seven previ-

ous matches played in the desertoasis. All eyes will be on AlastairCook who became the first englandskipper to score back to back hun-dreds in ODIs.

But Cook is not the only englandplayer enjoying a good series. StevenFinn, bowling with pace, control andskill, has underlined the impression thathe is fast maturing into a high-qualitycricketer and in taking four wickets ineach of the first two ODIs, has played akey role in england’s success. one-DAY InTernATIonALS AT DUBAI

TeAM P W L SUcceSS%

Pakistan 8 4 4 50.00

Sri Lanka 3 1 2 33.33

Australia 2 1 1 50.00

South Africa 3 2 1 66.66

HIgHeST InnIngS ToTALS:

317-5 in 50 South Africa v Pakistan 08-11-2010

275-9 in 49.5 Pakistan v South Africa 05-11-2010

274-6 in 50 South Africa v Pakistan 05-11-2010

260 in 44.5 Pakistan v South Africa 08-11-2010

LoWeST InnIngS ToTALS:

131 in 40.3 Sri Lanka v Pakistan 11-11-2011

168 in 38.5 Australia v Pakistan 22-04-2009

207 in 46.2 Pakistan v Australia 24-04-2009

210 in 46.3 Pakistan v Sri Lanka 14-11-2011

HIgHeST InDIVIDUAL ScoreS:

119* Hashim Amla (S Africa) v Pakistan 02-11-2010

92 Graeme Smith (S Africa) v Pakistan 05-11-2010

91 Umar Akmal (Pakistan) v Sri Lanka 14-11-2011

83 Jacques Kallis (S Africa) v Pakistan 08-11-2010

83 M Hafeez (Pakistan) v Sri Lanka 18-11-2011

BeST BoWLIng PerForMAnceS:

6-38 S Afridi (Pakistan) v Australia 22-04-2009

4-47 Morne Morkel (S Africa) v Pakistan 01-11-2010

3-27 Shahid Afridi (Pakistan) v Sri Lanka 11-11-2011

3-30 Jacques Kallis (S Africa) v Pakistan 08-11-2010

Records even for Pakistan at DubaiS PERVEZ QAISER

stats corner

WELLINGTONAFP

New Zealand batsman Martin Guptillcontinued a dream run of form as theBlack Caps posted a six wicket win overSouth Africa in the opening Twenty20 in-ternational in Wellington on Friday.

Guptill's undefeated 78 off 55 ballswas his sixth successive internationalhalf-century, steering New Zealand tofour for 148 with four balls to spare inreply to South Africa's six for 147.

The opener, who put Zimbabwe's at-tack to the sword in the recent tour white-wash, looked comfortable against morechallenging opposition in South Africa'sfirst trip to New Zealand in eight years.

He smashed four sixes in his innings,one booming effort off Lonwabo Tsot-sobe's bowling sailing onto the roof ofWestpac Stadium before it bounced backdown onto the pitch.

Kane Williamson also made a valu-able cameo with 24 off 22 balls, whilepaceman Tim Southee took three for 28to limit South Africa's total. New Zealandcaptain Brendon McCullum's decision tosend South Africa into bat on a slowpitch after winning the toss paid divi-dends with early wickets, preventing theProteas building momentum.

JP Duminy top scored for SouthAfrica with 41, while Justin Ontong, re-turning to the national team after athree-year absence, hit four successivesixes in his 32 off 17 balls.

Hashim Amla, who had lookedthreatening, was the first to go after try-ing to snatch a quick single off a mis-field in the fourth over, only for Guptillto dive in from the field with ball in handand knock over the stumps.

Colin Ingram departed for a duck inthe next over when he charged down thepitch to attack a Nathan McCullum off-break, leaving himself stranded when itslipped past him and into the hands ofBrendon McCullum behind the wicket.

Southee then joined the attack,smashing Levi in the helmet with his sec-

ond ball, then going on to claim thewicket with the last ball of the over whenLevi misjudged a slower ball and sent itsailing to Doug Bracewell. AB de Villierscame to the crease with his side reeling at38 for three but could only manage eightoff 17 balls before being ruled out to a de-batable catch and the carnage continued.

De Villiers hit spinner Ronnie Hira toshort cover, where Guptill swooped andclaimed a low catch, the South Africancaptain initially standing his ground untilthird umpire Chris Gaffaney ruled himout after inconclusive TV replays.

New Zealand, their tails up, then re-stricted Ontong and Duminy to just sixruns an over through the middle of theinnings, forcing the batsmen onto theback foot with aggressive bowling andsharp fielding. It was the Black Caps'turn to question the umpire when On-

tong appeared to edge the ball to wick-etkeeper McCullum, with the umpireruling the ball hit his body. The decisionproved costly for the home side whenOntong belted four successive sixes offpart-time spinner Kane Williamson toadd some respectability to South Africa's

score. But he was dismissed in the nextover, caught and bowled by Southee,who just got his fingertips to the ball ashe lunged to his right. Southee claimedhis third wicket when Duminy, who bat-tled doggedly to steady South Africa'sinnings, departed for 41.

Guptil shines as Kiwis down South Africa

SoUTH AFrIcA

r. Levi c Bracewell b Southee 13

H. Amla run out 19

c. Ingram st B.Mccullum b n.Mccullum 0

A.B. de Villiers c guptil b Hira 8

J.P. Duminy c Mills b Southee 41

J. ontong c & b Southee 32

J. Morkel not out 13

J. Botha not out 14

eXTrAS (lb7) 7

ToTAL (6 wickets; 20 overs) 147

Fall of wickets: 1-24 (Amla), 2-34 (Ingram), 3-38 (Levi), 4-52

(de Villiers), 5-102 (ontong), 6-127 (Duminy)

BoWLIng: n.Mccullum 4-0-16-1, Mills 4-0-44-0, Southee 4-

0-28-3, Hira 2-0-12-1, Bracewell 3-0-10-0, Williamson

2-0-27-0, nicol 1-0-3-0

neW ZeALAnD

r. nicol c Amla b Theron 13

M. guptill not out 78

B. Mccullum b Duminy 16

K. Williamson run out 24

c. de grandhomme c Levi b M.Morkel 2

J. Franklin not out 8

eXTrAS (lb3, w2, nb2) 7

ToTAL (4 wickets; 19.2 overs) 148

Fall of wickets: 1-49 (nicol), 2-90 (B.Mccullum), 3-127

(Williamson), 4-136 (de grandhomme)

BoWLIng: A.Morkel 3-0-20-0, Tsotsobe 3-0-28-0, M.Morkel 4-

1-26-1, Botha 3.2-0-24-0, Theron 4-0-27-1, Duminy 2-0-20-1

Toss: new Zealand

Series: new Zealand lead the three-match series 1-0

Man of the match: Martin guptill (nZL)

Umpires: gary Baxter (nZL), Barry Frost (nZL)

TV umpire: chris gaffaney (nZL)

Match referee: roshan Mahanama (SrI).

ScoreBoArD

Tseng back in therunning in Thailand

PATTAYAAFP

World number one Yani Tseng staged animpressive comeback on the second day ofthe $1.5 million Honda LPGA Thailandtournament Friday before thunderstormscut short play.After her disappointing one-over 73 on theopening day, the Taiwanese defendingchampion sparkled with a seven-under 65to get back in the running in joint seventhplace with an eagle, seven birdies and twobogeys. "In the first round I felt so sadabout the way I had played and really dis-appointed. I was even crying. But today Ifeel great," she said.Tseng could not fully explain why sheplayed so much better in the second roundwhich saw an improvement by eightstrokes. "I think I was more focused andmy putting was much better."I had a good massage last night -- thatmay have helped. I told my caddie that Ifelt I could go out and hit seven-under,and that's what I did."Australia's Karrie Webb moved to the topof the leaderboard on 10-under for thetournament with four holes to go whenplay was suspended for the day.The Australian's incomplete round at theSiam Country Club's Pattaya Old Courseincluded a hole-in-one at the 12th."I didn't see it go in but I heard the crowdroar," said a delighted Webb."It was a very solid day but a little disap-pointing I couldn't complete the roundtoday. I hope I can carry on where I left offin the morning."Clubhouse leader when play was sus-pended was South Korea's Jiyai Shin oneight-under after shooting a 66. Compa-triot Amy Yang was also on eight-underbut with four holes to play.Sweden's Caroline Hedwall was a furthershot behind on 65, along with Norway'sSuzann Pettersen and South Korea's ChoiNa-Yeon who still had four holes to play.Overnight leader Ai Miyazato from Japanwas on six-under in joint seventh place,with five holes left.Michelle Wie who shot a disappointing 75in the first round had a much better day,moving up the leaderboard after hitting afour-under 68 with five birdies and justone bogey. With just 70 players in thetournament there is no half-way cut, sothere is still an opportunity for thoselower down the field to work their wayinto contention.

Garrison clinch Seniorwomen Cricket title

LAHORESTAFF rePorTer

Garrison Club won the Senior Inter-districtWomen Cricket Championship Kinnaird Clubby 12 runs here at the losing team’s ground onFriday. Batting first, former Pakistan captainShamsha Hashami cracked match winning 58runs in a total of 136. Namra had three wick-ets for 15 runs while Anum and elizabathshared two wickets each for 25 and 21 runs re-spectively. In reply, Kinnaird Club was bowledout for 124 runs in 38.1 overs. Farah Naeemwith 44 runs, Bushra 19 and Namra 17 wereprominent with the bat. Shamsha ashami andMahlaqa Mansoor shared three wickets eachfor shared 15 and 16 runs respectively whileSabahat graebd two wickets. Kh Imran Nazir,MPA was the chief guest of the occasion anddistributed prizes among the winners.

Pakistan Post winLAHORE

STAFF rePorT

Pakistan Post on Friday registered a sixwickets win over Pakistan Air Force.ScoreS: Pakistan Air Force got 124 for all with none oftheir batsmen reaching the double figures. ejaz Azeemand Asad shared three wickets respectively while Bilaland Naeemhad two each. In reply, Pakistan Postachieved 126 runs losing four wickets. Asad 33, Bilal 55,Sheeraz 30 were the main contributors. Ali and Arshadshared one wicket each while Usman had two.

weLLINGTON: New Zealand's James Franklin (front) and Martin Guptill (back) celebratetheir victory in the first T20 match against South Africa at Seddon Park. AfP

LAHORe: Garrison Club team celebrates theirwin with the Senior Inter-district womenCricket Championship trophy. STAff PhoTo

PDF E-Paper ISB_Layout 1 2/18/2012 3:03 AM Page 19

sports20Saturday, 18 February, 2012

LAHORESTAFF rePorT

Colony Sugar won it last league match on Friday to qualifyfor the main final of the eCU Line Aibak Polo Cup 2012where it will take on Shahpur. However on Friday, ColonySugar defeated Guard Group-Newage combination 5-3.Santiago Mendivil and Raul Laplacette played the majorrole in their team’s win. Mendivil got two goals whileLaplacette had three in the victory run. The losing side’s

three goals came off the mace of Hissam Ali Hyder. earlier in the day, Master Paints edged aside Pakistan

Army-Nadra by their half a goal handicap advantage whenboth the team remained locked 6-all in the field action. Gas-ton Moore was the star of the day with five goals while IgnacioDel Tour added one to the winner’s Masters score whileJames Harper with four goals fought well for Army side andRaja Temur Nadeem came up with two. The matches weresupervised by Simon Mclaren Tosh, Ahmed Ali Tiwana andVieri Antinori while referee for the day was Bilal Haye Mehta.

PoInTS TABLe

TeAMS P W L gF gA PTS AVePooL 'A'Shahpur 2 1 1 17 1/2 15 2 + 2 1/2

Army/Nadra 2 1 1 15 14 1/2 2 +1/2

Master Paints 2 1 1 12 1/2 15 1/2 2 - 3

PooL 'B'Colony Sugar 2 2 - 11 6 1/2 4 + 4 1/2

Hataff Security 2 1 1 14 10 2 + 4

Guard Group/Newage 2 - 2 7 15 1/2 - -8 1/2

AFTeR having endured their worstever ePL defeat at Old Trafford thisseason Arsenal have replicated that

in the Champions League courtesy their 4-0mauling against AC Milan on Wednesday.And while this current Milan side is a decentbunch, they are no way near as good as Ar-senal’s spineless group made themlook like – remember this is virtuallythe same side that was comfortablyoverturned by a considerably lessdexterous Spurs side last year.When Arsene Wenger admits to apoor performance, rest assured thatthere is not an iota of an excuse tobe traced from within the stretchedjurisdiction of the match; and nothere weren’t any. Onecan raise theirhands up andadmit to beingoutplayed by abetter side occa-sionally, but therecan possibly be nojustification forthe nonexistence ofeffort, and thedearth of desire.

Arsenal’s defen-sive frailties are anage old brokenrecord, however, theback five in Milan was

Wenger’s first choice defensive lineup. Afterhaving moaned throughout the seasonabout having to play out of position at leftback, Thomas Vermaelen pulled off one ofhis worst performances when restored in theheart of defence. Bacary Sagna and KieranGibbs were all over the place with their po-sitional play and Laurent Koscielny wouldhave made a 1000 year old spruce tree looklike Usain Bolt! The lot in front of the de-

fence weren’t exactly Maradonnas ei-ther, with Rosicky’s shooting

threatening the spectators inRow Z, more so than the goal,Theo Walcott continuing to re-define headless-chicken sprint-ing and Aaron Ramsey and AlexSong contributing as much to

the Arsenal cause as the pair ofcorner flags in the Milan half.

Credit must also be given to theMilan forward line, especially Zlatan

Ibrahimovic – who for once com-pletely forgot about being a

big game bottler – andRobinho – who hasn’t

looked this menacingsince the best of hisMadrid days. How-ever, their task was

made consider-ably easy thanks

to Arsenal’suncompromis-ing refusal tocompete. Thisperformance,more so than

the result, has been long coming in europeand the Arsenal faithful must be thankfulthat this transpire against a ‘lesser’ side.Wenger’s ship has long been sinking tonewer depths, and while they have the po-tential of flaunting the flamboyant occa-sionally – their remarkable performance atStamford Bridge this season for example –there is no doubt that the cruise is on a re-lentless decline for many a year. And bar-ring Chelsea redefining their depths ofdespair or Liverpool tracing the nadir of theRoy Hodgson days, it is hard to see Arsenalfinish in the top four this year. And withone year left on Robin Van Persie’s con-tract, we all know what that means.

cHeLSeA’S goALS

After the 2-0 defeat at everton, AndreVillas-Boas’ future came under scrutiny forthe umpteen millionth time this season.And it is understandable, since much big-ger names have been shown the door formuch lesser sins by the Russian magnate.However, the Portuguese gaffer has reiter-ated that he has the owner’s backing andhence, he didn’t care if the players didn’tback his ‘project’. This comes after he calledin a candid meeting on Sunday – originallythe players’ off day – in the backdrop of thedefeat at Goodison Park. Managers failingto have complete backing of the dressingroom, is a factor that has intermittentlycrept inside Chelsea Football Club since thedeparture of the Special One, and with AVBadmitting to its resurfacing it is becomingincreasingly evident that all is not well atStamford Bridge – something that the

league table vindicates.With the title tilt penetrating

out of the realm of reality, if notmathematics, it’s finishing in thetop four – a place where they cur-rently don’t find themselves in –and decent runs in the Cham-pions League and the FACup what the Blues mustbe vying for. even thougha top four finish must be atthe top of the priority list,Chelsea must be eying FACup defence and a go atthe Champions League aswell, with Villas-Boas provinghimself to be a competent knock-out mastermind with Porto.Going past Birmingham is theirtask this weekend, after whichthey face a tricky trip to Napoli;if things go well in the cups andChelsea cling onto a top four fin-ish, the season might not end upas catastrophically as somehad feared.

eVrA VS SUAreZ

Okay, the evra-Suarez spatis now officially the most te-diously overhyped debate thisyear – having soared above any-thing Carlos Tevez has conjuredup this season. This not being asociopolitical column connotesthat we aren’t going to discussracism, we’d rather mull overthe unwarranted publicity of a

non-issue – with due respect to the anti-racism brigade – that continues to hog thelimelight as the British continue to flaunttheir ‘holier than thou’ garb. The column

doesn’t condone Luis Suarez’s refusal toshake hands with Patrice evra, only thatthis doesn’t make him a ‘horrible’human being, as many including SirAlex Ferguson have implied.

Sir Alex categorically statedthat “Luis Suarez should never

play for Liverpool again”. Notthat it is any of his businesswho the Anfield club picks

in their side and who theydon’t, it would have beenprecious to see the lookon his eyes if CrystalPalace had said the sameabout eric Cantona after‘that’ kung fu kick in1995, or Alf-Inge Haa-land about Roy Keane in2001, or Wayne Rooneyabout Cristiano Ronaldo

in 2006. Yes, racial dis-crimination is appalling butintentionally trying to breakthe leg of a fellow humanbeing or trying to get your

club mate sent off in the worldcup, isn’t exactly social service,now is it? And yes Suarezmight never win a humanitar-ian award, but Sir Alex youhaven’t always had a team fullof angels either. Let footballstay football, and if you want

role models for kids, thereare libraries full of rele-vant books that have long

been covered with dust.

Arsenal FC has long been a sinking shipThat night in San Siro was the Gunners’ nadir in European football, Chelsea are on adownward spiral of their own while the racism debate has been blown out of proportion

KUNWAR KHULDUNE SHAHID

ePL crYstaL BaLL

Colony Sugar reach Aibak Polo Cup final

BoK Peshawar totake on SB Karachiin Governor Cup final

LAHORESTAFF rePorT

Bank of Khyber Peshawar and State Bankof Pakistan Karachi will clash for the 8thSBP Super Series Governor Cup-2012 onFebruary 20 here at the at Bagh-e-Jin-nah’s Lahore Gymkhana ground. In thefirst semifinal, Bank of Khyber, Peshawardefeated PPCBL, Lahore by eight wicketsat Cricket Centre Model Town. Bank ofKhyber, which was given a target of 130runs by PPCBL, reached the score in 12.4overs. Samiullah was outstanding withthe bat making unbeaten 75 runs off 33balls with 6 fours and 6 sixes. In the sec-ond semifinal played at Aligarh CricketGround, State Bank Karachi defeatedUnited Bank Limited, Karachi by 10 wick-ets. UBL Karachi made 141 runs for sixwickets and in reply State Bank Karachiachieved the target in 16.2 overs withoutloss. Both their openers, Muhammadehsan 78 and Waqas Ali 62 completedthe score for State Bank Karachi.

weightlifting trials LAHORE

STAFF rePorT

The open trials to select the Pakistanweightlifting team for participation in theSouth Asian Weightlifting Championship2012 will be held on Tuesday. The SouthAsian Weightlifting Championship isschedule to be held from March 22 to 25at Katmandu, Nepal. The trials will beheld at Railway Stadium Ghari Shaho La-hore as per IWF rules, said hafiz ImanButt, secretary Pakistan Weightlifting ed-eration. Muhammad Rashed Malik is thechairman selection committee and thetrials process will start at 9.00 am.

Office-bearers electedLAHORE

STAFF rePorT

The Punjab Bodybuilding Associationon Friday elected its new officer-bear-ers for the next term of four years. Theelection meeting which was held atFaisalabad elected Sheikh MohammadIsmial as its president and Sheikh Fa-rooq Iqbal as secretary while Moham-mad Naseer was elected treasurer.

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sports 21Saturday, 18 February, 2012

wAtCh it Live

TEN SPORTSPakistan V England3rd ODI04:00PM

GEO SUPERBD League: ChittagongV Khulna Royal Bengals01:00PM

DOHAAFP

WORLD num-ber one Victo-ria Azarenkawon her 15thconsecutive

match of the season to make thesemi-finals of the WTA Qatar Openon Friday. The Belarusian star de-feated Yanina Wickmayer of Bel-gium 6-0, 6-4 to stay on course fora third title this year, after victoriesat Sydney and the Australian Open.

Azarenka was in imperiousform in the first set but stuttered abit in the second when she wasbroken for the second time in theeighth game by Wickmayer to levelthe scores at 4-4. But Wickmayercould not hold her serve in the nextgame, hammering the ball into thenet and then sending a backhandwide to concede what proved to bethe decisive break for Azarenka.

The top seed then closed out thematch by winning the final game tolove. earlier, Australian third seedSamantha Stosur overcame a spir-ited fightback by Romania's MonicaNiculescu to advance to her firstsemi-final of the year. Stosur, thereigning US Open champion, won 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 in a little short of twohours after totally losing her momen-tum in the second set and survivinga tough spell in the third whenNiculescu took three games in a rowto level at 3-3. Niculescu had a won-derful opportunity to break Stosur in

the seventh game when she was lead-ing 30-0, but sent an easy volley longafter a lengthy rally to give the Aus-tralian the opening she was looking

for. Stosur, the world's fifth-rankedplayer, latched onto it gratefully tohold her serve, before winning thenext two games in a hurry.

doHa: victoria azarenka of

belarus returns to yanina

Wickmayer of belgium

during their Wta Qatar

open quarter-final. AFP

Azarenka, Stosurreach Qatar semis

DOHA: Australian champion Samantha Stosur returns the ball to Romania'sMonica Niculescu during their wTA Qatar Open. AfP

LAHORESTAFF rePorT

The Punjab Sports Festival Inter-tehsilcompetitions are in full swing in all the36 districts of the province.

In athletics boys, Daniyal Talat fromModel Town took first position in 100 mrace and Ali Raza from Cantt was sec-ond. In 200m, Sarium Durani fromModel Town was the winner while Mu-rawat Ali (Cantt) was second. In 400 m,Ahsan Ali (Cantt) attained first placewhile Shahbaz (Model Town) was sec-ond. In 800 m, Mohammed Farooq(Cantt) achieved first position andUsman (Model Town) secured secondposition. In 1500m, Sabir Ali (ModelTown) won the top medal and Moham-mad Waqas (Cantt) got second positionwhile in the long jump and shot put,Waqas and Saim Zulifqar from ModelTown were the respective winners. Mo-hammed Yasir (Cantt) got first position

in javelin throw and Suleman Sabtain(Model Town) was second. In schoolboys volleyball, Government HighSchool Attoki Awan (Cantt) excelled bril-liantly, Government High School

Mozant Lahore City got second placewhereas Government Model HighSchool Model Town was third.

In the boys hockey, Model Townthrashed Lahore City 5-0. In general

public hockey, Model Town was victori-ous against Lahore City. In college boysfootball, Government Islamia CollegeRailway Road beat Government GulbergCollege 2-0, MAO College got thewalkover against Government CollegeIqbal Town. Ikhwan College Burki beatMT College at penalty kicks by 2-1. Incricket for colleges, Government CollegeGulberg defeated Islamia College Rail-way Road by five wickets. Islamia Col-lege Railway made 70 runs andGovernment College Gulberg chasedsuccessful. MAO College beat LahorePolytechnic College Ravi Road by 60runs. Islamia College of Commerce IqbalTown defeated Punjab Science Collegeby 6 runs while FC College hit Al RiazCollege Model Town by 5 runs.

In the girls schools hockey final, Com-prehensive School Lahore City beat QueenMarry 2-0. In the over all results, LahoreCity achieved first, Cantt got second whileModel Town attained third positions.

LAHORe: Mohammad waqas leaps in the air in the long jump event of the PunjabSports Festival at the Punjab Stadium. STAff PhoTo

LAHORESTAFF rePorT

The 112th Annual Sports of the Govern-ment College University Lahore Fridaykicked off at a grand inaugural ceremonyat the University Ground.

About 3000 students from 26 depart-ments of GC University Lahore took part inthe ceremony marked by a grand marchpast, sports day oath and athletics meet.

Institute of Bio-technology bagged theprestigious trophy of the Best March PastContingent while Department of englishstood second. The Department of Statis-tics, owing to their discipline and unifor-mity, adjudicated third.

The GCU athletes, led by GCU 111thAnnual Sports record-holder (long jump)Adnan Jahangir, took the oath.

The musicians of GCU Nazir AhmedMusic Society (NAMS) presented a specialanthem for 112th GCU Athletics Meet.

In his message, GCU Vice ChancellorProf (Meritorious) Dr MuhammadKhaleeq-ur-Rahman said that sports makestudents better human being. He added:“It teaches tolerance and encourages the

spirit of competitiveness.”The Vice Chancellor said GCU is one of

the finest sports nurseries for producingand grooming sportsmen for nationalteams. He advised the university studentsto never compromise on the standards.“Sportsmanship is more important thanwinning an event,” he added. Addressingthe opening ceremony, GCU Sports BoardChairman Prof. Dr. Ikramul Haq said thatthe importance given to sports by the de-veloped countries is no less than educa-tion. “The GCU leadership has providedfull encouragement and conducive envi-ronment for the sports activities right fromthe beginning,” he added.

Later, annual sports event was markedby 800 meters race which was won by Ge-ography Department student M. WasimSajid who covered the distance in 2:05:78seconds. Sadique Akbar was the winner of3000 meters race. In 200 meters race,Tariq Mehmood, Intermediate student,secured the first position with 22:00 sec-onds time. Long jump event was won byAdnan Jahangir. Saad Ali Hassan of UrduDepartment bagged the gold medal in shotput with a throw of 9.70 meters. Depart-

ment of Urdu Department student MoshinNaveed brought victory to his departmentin 110 m hurdle race. Student of Urdu De-partment Qasim Ali won the high jumpevent, whereas Altaf Hussain of Comput-ers Sciences Department threw javelin to44.40 meters to secure the top spot. Themain event of the day was 4x100 meters

relay race which was won by the Interme-diate students. The athletics events of5000 meters, 1500 meters, Triple Jump,and Pole vault will be held at the Univer-sity Ground today (Saturday). However,the most enthralling Gymkhana eventswhich include Ministerial Staff Race, NaibQasid Race, Four Legged Race, Cricket

Throw Ball for Girls, Pillow Fighting, StaffChildren Race, Stilt Race, 60 Meter Race,Sack Race, Chatti Race for Girls and Ob-stacle Race will be held at the closing cer-emony to be held at GCU Oval Groundtomorrow (Sunday). Punjab Sports BoardChairman MNA Hamza Shahbaz Sharifwill be the Chief Guest.

GCU 112th Annual Sports rolls into action

LAHORe: vice Chancellor Prof Dr Muhammad Khaleeq-ur-Rahman gives medals to the winners of sports events on the opening day of theGCU Annual Sports while girl students participate in the 200m heats. STAff PhoToS

Tough contests held in Sports festival inter-tehsil events

Berdych overcomesone bad game

ROTTERDAMAFP

Tomas Berdych kept his indoor record anunblemished 8-0 this season as the Czechoverpowered Italy's Andreas Seppi 6-3, 6-4on Friday for a place in the semi-finals ofthe ATP Rotterdam Open on Friday. Butthe second-seeded perfectionist was slightlyannoyed after losing his only serve of thematch in the second set, a mistake which hequickly rectified to get the contest back onlevel-pegging. "I played a good match butI'm not happy with that error," said theworld number seven, who was unable toplay his Rotterdam quarter-final a year agoafter coming down with a fever. "I was try-ing to keep my level high and I did it savethat one game. But I still managed to win intwo sets so it's all okay at the end. "Ofcourse I have hopes of winning the tourna-ment but it is one match at a time for me,"said the player who won the Montpelliertitle this month. Berdych will await a Satur-day opponent from third seed and tourna-ment debutant Juan Martin Del Potro, whowas playing Serb seventh seed ViktorTroicki. Berdych claimed his 67-minute vic-tory over the 45th-ranked Seppi on a fifthace of the afternoon at the Ahoy stadiumafter breaking the Italian three times.Berdych took a 3-2 lead in their series afterlast playing Seppi in 2008. The other twoquarter-finals featured top seed Roger Fed-erer playing Jarkko Nieminen after passinginto the last eight through an injury with-drawal from second-round opponentMikhail Youzhny of Russia. World numberthree Federer is playing Rotterdam for thefirst time since he won the 2005 title.French fifth seed Richard Gasquet was bid-ding for the semis against Russian veteranNikolay Davydenko, whom he leads 3-1.earlier, Tomas Berdych and Juan Martindel Potro joined resting top seed RogerFederer in the Rotterdam Open quarter-fi-nals on Thursday. Second seed Berdych ad-vanced with only minimal effort asopponent Marcos Baghdatis quit with a leftfoot injury after 19minutes on courtwhile trailing 3-0 in theirsecondroundmatch.But Del Potro,the number threeseed making his debuthere, had a battle on hishands before he finallygot past Slovak KarolBeck 6-4, 7-5.

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Saturday, 18 February, 2012 22

Published by Arif Nizami for Nawa Media Corporation (Pvt) Ltd at Qandeel Printing Press, 4 Queens Road, Lahore. Editor: Arif Nizami, Executive Editor: Sarmad Bashir

ISLAMABAD TAHIr nIAZ

ASINGLe political-cum-legalmistake of not completing theelection Commission of Pak-istan (eCP), as required underthe 18th Amendment, has cost

the government so much that it has had toswallow a bitter pill of agreeing – particu-larly with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s demand of making the eCP moreindependent and impartial and bringing ina neutral caretaker setup – with senatorswho are now using the proposed legislationas a blackmailing tool to pressurise thegovernment by linking the passage of the20th Amendment Bill to the release of de-velopment funds.

The major opposition party, PML-N,really used the 20th Amendment Bill as a

blackmail instrument to get the govern-ment bowed before their demands in ex-change of its consent for the bill. However,the legislation sailed through the LowerHouse of parliament with a unanimousvote on Tuesday.

On Friday, it was the senators’ turn tocome forward with their demands, includ-ing the release of their development funds,if the government wanted their support forthe legislation, which would validate theelection of 28 legislators who went intosuspension on Supreme Court’s order dueto the incomplete status of the eCP at thetime of the contested by-elections.

Despite being on the Order of the Day,the government had to defer the consider-ation and passage of the 20th AmendmentBill apparently in face of the reservationsof the senators, with Senator Salim Saiful-lah and Semeen Siddiqui linking the pas-

sage of the bill with the release of develop-ment funds.

Speaking on a point of order, Saifullahsaid the development funds of the senatorswere not being released. “Release the fundsimmediately, otherwise I will not let the20th Amendment Bill get passed from theSenate,” he said.

A female senator from Sindh also en-dorsed Saifullah’s stance.

Chief Whip Islamuddin Sheikh, how-ever, assured the House that he had talkedto the prime minister regarding the issueand the funds would be released by Mon-day, the day until which the chairman ad-journed the House.

Some of the political parties, includingJamaat-e-Islami, PakhtunKhwa MilliAwami Party and National Party, have norepresentation in the National Assemblydue to their boycott of the 2008 general

election and these political entities havereservations over the fresh amendments inthe constitution.

Neither the government nor the oppo-sition took these parties into confidenceover the legislation before it was tabled andpassed by the Lower House.

JI Senator Prof Khurshid told PakistanToday that there were flaws in the bill and hisparty would not support the bill in its existingform. “The leader of the House has sum-moned a meeting of the treasury and oppo-sition parties on Monday morning to discussthe legislation under debate,” he added.

earlier, in a reply to the chairman’squery regarding the legislative business re-ferring to the 20th Constitution (Amend-ment) Bill, Leader of the House NayyarHussain Bukhari said the governmentwanted consensus on the legislation, so itwas being deferred.

All parties, except the PPP and MQM,staged a walkout from the House against“maligning” the Pashtuns.

Two PML-Q Likeminded members,Haroon Akhtar and Gulshan Saeed, did notwalk out of the House.

earlier, Haji Adeel said on a point oforder that a private TV channel had re-ported recently that the Interpol had is-sued arrest warrants of one of the sittingsenators from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

He asked the government to take ac-tion against the TV channel managementor make it disclose the name of the saidsenator. He called the news a conspiracyaimed at maligning Pashtuns.

The interior minister assured theHouse that he would take action against awebsite which declared JUI-F chiefMaulana Fazlur Rehman a beneficiary ofNRO, saying he was not so.

Government’s ‘eCP mistake’ costs it dearly

ISLAMABADMASooD reHMAn

Hearing a suo motu case involving a strike byLahore’s young doctors against the suspensionof their seniors on account of hundreds ofdeaths of heart patients due to spurious drugs,the Supreme Court on Friday directed thePunjab government to immediately withdrawthe suspension notification of the senior doc-tors of Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC)and hold a proper enquiry into the matter.

A three-member SC bench comprisingJustice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, JusticeAnwar Zaheer Jamali and Justice Saqib Nisardirected the Punjab health secretary to resolvethe issue and submit a report by February 20.The court said the case would be heard onFebruary 20 in Lahore by a bench headed byChief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.

“The doctors, needless to say, come froma noble profession and we are sanguine, theywould not leave their ailing patients unat-tended,” the court noted.

Appearing on notice, Punjab Advocate Gen-eral Ashtar Ausaf Ali submitted that on accountof several deaths of patients under treatment atPIC Lahore, the competent authority, that is thechief minister, suspended two doctors, a phar-macist and two others employees of the PIC. Hesaid five PIC officials, who were suspended, in-cluded Medical Superintendent Dr JafferSaleem, Deputy Medical Superintendent Dr SyedAli Hassan, Director Drug Testing LaboratoryAbdus Salam Mufti, Store Keeper (medicine) Zu-fiqar Ali and Out Door Patients Department(OPD) Pharmacist Muhammad Yousaf.

The court drew the attention of the advocategeneral and the heath secretary towards themandate of sections 5 and 6 of the Punjab em-ployees, efficiency and Discipline Act, 2006 andnoted that proper procedure was not followedwhile suspending them. “We don’t oppose thelegal action, but due legal process should havebeen followed,” Justice Nisar noted.

The advocate general assured the courtthat the competent authority will withdraw theorder of suspension during the course of theday (Friday) and pass an appropriate orderafter initial probe and fixation of liability. ThePunjab health secretary submitted that thestrike by the young doctors was not being sup-ported by the Pakistan Medical Associationand it was confined only to the Young DoctorsMedical Association (YDMA).

FIA Director (Legal) Azam Khan submit-ted that two of the three cases registered bythe FIA against the pharmaceutical companieshad been recommended to be cancelled as thecompanies concerned were found not to haveviolated any law or regulation.

Attorney General Maulvi Anwarul Haqsubmitted that in compliance with the court’sprevious order, the provincial assemblies ofPunjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwapassed the requisite resolutions in terms of Ar-ticle 144 of the constitution authorising parlia-ment to pass a law constituting a ‘DrugRegulatory Agency of Pakistan’ and a draft or-dinance to this effect had been prepared and tobe presented before parliament in due course.

SC orders withdrawal ofPIC doctors’ suspension

MONITORING DESK

A bill has been tabled in theUS House of Representatives call-ing upon Pakistan to recognise theright to self-determination for thepeople of Balochistan, a private TVchannel reported on Friday.

Rep Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA)introduced a House Concurrent Res-olution that the Baloch nation had ahistoric right to self-determination.He said Balochistan was currently di-vided between Pakistan, Iran, andAfghanistan with no sovereign rightsof its own. “In Pakistan especially, theBaloch people are subjected to vio-lence and extrajudicial killing.”

Pakistan’s Foreign Officeprotested the bill in a statement lateon Friday, saying the move was ex-tremely irresponsible. It said the billwas a violation of international lawsand represented a lack of knowl-edge of true facts. The FO addedthat it hoped the bill would not beapproved by the US Congress.

The bill states that the Balochpeople “have the right to self-de-termination and to their own sov-ereign country; and they should beafforded the opportunity to choose

their own status”.“The Balochs, like other na-

tions of people, have an innateright to self-determination,”Rohrabacher said. “The politicaland ethnic discrimination theysuffer is tragic and made more sobecause America is financing andselling arms to their oppressors inIslamabad.” “Historically,Balochistan was an independentlygoverned entity known as theBaluch Khanate of Kalat, whichcame to an end after invasionsfrom both British and Persianarmies. An attempt to regain inde-pendence in 1947 was crushed byan invasion by Pakistan,” the billsays. “Today the Balochistanprovince of Pakistan is rich in nat-ural resources but has been subju-gated and exploited by Punjabiand Pashtun elites in Islamabad,leaving Balochistan the country’spoorest province” it adds.

Reps Louie Gohmert (R-TX)and Steve King (R-IA) have alsosigned on as original co-sponsorsof the bill. Rep Rohrabacher ischairman of the House Foreign Af-fairs Subcommittee on Oversightand Investigations.

Hamid Karzai asks Pakistan to restoreNATO supplieswith added taxesISLAMABAD: Afghan PresidentHamid Karzai has urged Pakistan to re-open NATO supply routes and collectincreased levy instead, as it would bene-fit both Pakistan and Afghanistan. Hewas talking to senior journalists at abreakfast gathering on Friday. In re-sponse to a question on peace talks be-tween the United States and Talibanand his government’s role, the Afghanpresident said he knew of the US-Tal-iban contacts, and would decide thevenue for holding direct talks with themilitants. Karzai said the Taliban couldopen an office in Qatar, but Kabul wouldhold talks with them in Turkey or SaudiArabia. To another question on in-creased Indian influence in Afghanistan,Karzai said Pakistan should not be wor-ried, as it was already negotiating tradeagreements with India. Karzai admittedthat the Indian army was training theAfghan troops, but added that his coun-try would have no objection if PakistanArmy trains the Afghan soldiers. He saidhis government was considering the op-tion, but “trust deficit between the twocountries is a hurdle”. The Afghanleader said that Pakistan should play akey role in talks with the Taliban andsought Pakistani assistance for negotia-tions. He emphasised that the UnitedStates could not talk with the insurgentson behalf of Afghanistan. inP

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-nawaz President nawaz Sharif holds the child of a missing person during a visit on Fridayto a camp set up by the families of people allegedly whisked away by intelligence agencies. online | SToRy on PAGe 04

bill on balochistan landsin US house of Repsg Demands Pakistan recognise Balochs’ rightto self-determination g FO condemns bill, saysit’s in violation of international laws

g After succumbing to Pml-n’s pressure, govt promises release of senators’ funds to win support on 20th Amendment bill

suspended piC doCTors reinsTaTed | page 07

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